Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh is firm on the issue of transparency in air fares and has stated that airlines cannot refuse to divulge information on how many tickets are sold in each fare slab.
Singh's reaction comes in the wake of media report which said airlines turned down suggestion to reveal number of seats sold in each fare slab or share other details related to pricing. Chief executive officers of domestic airlines met Director General of Civil Aviation Arun Mishra last Friday and told him it was not possible to reveal data on number of seats sold in each fare slab or fare bucket as it would lead to unhealthy competition and price fixing and also objected to reducing the total number of fare slabs.
The DGCA's intervention comes in the backdrop of a supreme court order which banned airlines from collecting transaction fee. In its order in January the court also asked the DGCA to take a fresh look at airline tariff structure.
The civil aviation ministry has been attempting to bring in transparency in air fares and plans to set up a fare monitoring unit for the purpose. "We will discuss the issue with airlines. We will also study international practices,'' Singh told Business Standard on Tuesday. He added that the ministry will work out system to collect the information from airlines.
12/03/13 Aneesh Phadnis/Business Standard
