Mumbai: Air India Express has begun charging for choice of seats including the middle row seats as well even as the civil aviation ministry wants airlines to limit number of such preferred seats.
The low cost arm of Air India flies an all Boeing 737 fleet and gets 75% of its business from Kerala. It operates 200 weekly flights a majority of them to Gulf region. The airline offers free snacks but has now decided to charge for seats following the decision to unbundle the services.
The airline's sales team wrote to travel agents on Monday that it will levy Rs 100-400 as a preference seat charge on domestic flights and Rs 200-750 on international flights. Pre-booking of middle row seat will cost Rs 100 and Rs 200 on domestic and international flights respectively.
"Air India Express primarily caters to migrant labour traffic and charging for seats will make air travel expensive,'' said a travel consultant. Earlier this month the government allowed airlines to charge for seats, meals, use of lounges and check-in baggage. Airlines have reduced the free baggage allowance from 20 kgs to 15 kgs following the government decision.
21/05/13 Aneesh Phadnis/Business Standard
