New Delhi: The aviation ministry on Saturday said accepting a parliamentary panel's recommendation to cap airfares will lead to rise in fares for majority of flyers. It also defended itself in the face of scathing criticism from the panel for allegedly failing to protect flyers' interests by pointing out that only 10,000 complaints were received in 2017 which saw almost 12 crore domestic flyers.
"Pricing deregulation has allowed competition to bring down prices dramatically in India, making it one of the lowest fare markets in the world. Indian airlines follow globally accepted dynamic pricing practices. Only between 1 per cent and 2 per cent of tickets are transacted (sold) at the highest fare basket. A capping of fares could raise prices for the 98-99 per cent of the passengers," the aviation ministry said in a statement.
"The government is cognizant of emergencies or natural calamities, which cause a sudden surge in aviation demand. In such cases, the ministry works with airlines to create more supply by re-routing aircraft to the affected areas and ensuring stable prices," it said about steep hikes in airfares during peak travel seasons.
The aviation ministry defended itself a day after the Rajya Sabha's Parliamentary Standing Committee on Transport, Tourism and Culture lambasted Indian carriers in general and market leader IndiGo in particular in a report titled "issues related to improving consumers' satisfaction of airlines". The issues raised by the panel were about rude staffers; rip-off cancellation charges; missing flights after slow check-in and then being forced to cough up huge sums to be on next flights and cooked up flying times to dress up punctuality records.
It had slammed the aviation ministry for not doing enough to rescue flyers from the airlines' malpractices. "Consumers are at the receiving end and at the mercy of the private airlines for any kind of services.... Government should wake up from its slumber and perform their duties to save airline passengers from the vices and to make the air travel an enjoyable experience for them," the panel report had said.
06/01/18 Saurabh Sinha/Times of India
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"Pricing deregulation has allowed competition to bring down prices dramatically in India, making it one of the lowest fare markets in the world. Indian airlines follow globally accepted dynamic pricing practices. Only between 1 per cent and 2 per cent of tickets are transacted (sold) at the highest fare basket. A capping of fares could raise prices for the 98-99 per cent of the passengers," the aviation ministry said in a statement.
"The government is cognizant of emergencies or natural calamities, which cause a sudden surge in aviation demand. In such cases, the ministry works with airlines to create more supply by re-routing aircraft to the affected areas and ensuring stable prices," it said about steep hikes in airfares during peak travel seasons.
The aviation ministry defended itself a day after the Rajya Sabha's Parliamentary Standing Committee on Transport, Tourism and Culture lambasted Indian carriers in general and market leader IndiGo in particular in a report titled "issues related to improving consumers' satisfaction of airlines". The issues raised by the panel were about rude staffers; rip-off cancellation charges; missing flights after slow check-in and then being forced to cough up huge sums to be on next flights and cooked up flying times to dress up punctuality records.
It had slammed the aviation ministry for not doing enough to rescue flyers from the airlines' malpractices. "Consumers are at the receiving end and at the mercy of the private airlines for any kind of services.... Government should wake up from its slumber and perform their duties to save airline passengers from the vices and to make the air travel an enjoyable experience for them," the panel report had said.
06/01/18 Saurabh Sinha/Times of India
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