DGCA asks airlines to declare fares on websites

New Delhi: Aviation regulator DGCA on Monday directed all Indian carriers to show route-wise and date-wise airfares on their websites by Wednesday evening and ensure transparency so that flyers do not feel cheated by high ticket prices.

A fresh directive was issued shortly after top officials of the Civil Aviation Ministry and the Directorate General of Civil Aviation met representatives of full-service carriers - Air India, Jet Airways and Kingfisher.

DGCA had met officials of the no-frill carriers IndiGo, Spicejet and GoAir, on Saturday after issuing a directive asking all carriers to explain the high fares they were charging.

Claiming that fares have come down by 25 per cent in the last 48 hours, DGCA said it would continuously watch the situation and airlines should not resort to any unreasonable and excessive increases in their tariffs in coming weeks.

"Appropriate action will be initiated against erring airlines," it warned.

In order to maintain transparency in tariff and enable predictability for customers, all scheduled domestic airlines have been directed to "upload the route-wise tariff across its network in various fare categories commensurate with date of purchase on their respective websites, in addition to adhering to the directions issued on November 19", the directive said.

All airlines have agreed to comply with the directive that has to be implemented "latest by 1700 hrs of December 8", an official spokesperson said.

The directive implies that the airlines would have to not only provide details of route-wise fares but also detail them for each 'fare bucket'. Aircraft seats are grouped into different categories, each at a distinct price. These categories are referred to as 'fare buckets'. At the two meetings, all airlines were briefed about

the provisions of Rule 135 of the Aircraft Rules, 1937, which deals with publishing of tariff established by them on their websites or in daily newspapers.

In view of the "sudden and inordinate surge" in airfares from November 15 particularly on metro routes, all airlines were directed to bring tariffs to a reasonable level, the spokesperson said.

Following this, the DGCA had issued a directive on November 19 asking airlines to furnish a copy of established tariff route-wise across its network in various fare

categories to the DGCA on every first day of the calendar month.