NEW DELHI: The Civil Aviation Ministry has kept in abeyance its recent order mandating airlines to ensure that seat selection charges must not be levied on at least 60% of the seats on a flight. A communication in this connection was sent to the aviation regulator, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Thursday (April 2) night.
The Ministry’s previous order on free seat selection was issued on March 17 as part of passenger friendly moves announced by the Ministry. It now plans to go in for a comprehensive review of the issue.
The decision has been taken due to strong objections from a body representing Indian carriers.
The Ministry said, “It has been decided that the provision relating to offering at least 60% of seats free of charge shall be kept in abeyance till further orders.”
The order added, “The matter has been reviewed in light of representations received from the Federation of Indian Airlines and Akasa Air, highlighting operational and commercial implications of the above provision, including its potential impact on fare structures and consistency with the prevailing deregulated tariff regime.”
The order said that other passenger facilitation measures announced earlier including transparency in seat allocation, co-seating of passengers having the same PNR, carriage of musical instruments, sports equipment and pets hold good.