A senior ministry official told Firstpost the ministry checked up prices on these routes on three days - on the 10th, a day prior to Diwali; Diwali day 11th November and on the 12th. And was satisfied with the fare levels on each day. The monitoring of domestic fares comes a few weeks after all domestic airlines were summoned by the secretary over what the ministry has termed "predatory" pricing earlier during peak travel season. Does the satisfaction with Diwali fares mean the ministry will no longer crack the whip on air fares, in any form, in the near future? Remember, fare monitoring and informal discussions with airlines have been ongoing for the last several months as the ministry tried to cajole airlines to be reasonable with last minute fares and those during peak travel seasons. It had received numerous complaints earlier about last minute fares sometimes being as high a 10 times the average fare on a route.
The ministry official said airlines had been specifically asked to reduce the gap between average and highest fares on each sector as well as the gap between fares during peak and non-peak seasons. "We had requested the airlines to do some self regulation. We are happy to see they have heeded to our request. This festival season we did not find fares to be exorbitant. Besides, we did not receive any complaints either on exorbitant fares," said the ministry official.
16/11/15 Sindhu Bhattacharya/F.Business
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The ministry official said airlines had been specifically asked to reduce the gap between average and highest fares on each sector as well as the gap between fares during peak and non-peak seasons. "We had requested the airlines to do some self regulation. We are happy to see they have heeded to our request. This festival season we did not find fares to be exorbitant. Besides, we did not receive any complaints either on exorbitant fares," said the ministry official.
16/11/15 Sindhu Bhattacharya/F.Business
