NEW DELHI: The Ministry of Civil Aviation on Saturday stepped in to address the greed of some airlines exploiting the IndiGo mess as fares went beyond 8X on some sectors. It imposed strict caps on domestic fares with the maximum of Rs 18,000 for an economy class ticket.
Later in the day, the Director General of Civil Aviation slapped a show-cause notice on IndiGo’s CEO to respond within 24 hours why action should not be taken against him for the massive chaos.
The ministry also directed IndiGo to clear all pending passenger refunds for all cancelled or disrupted flights by 8 pm on Sunday, 7 December.
The fare cap of Rs 7,500-18,000 prescribed by the ministry was still on the higher side, with fliers being made to pay for the needless chaos. These caps will remain in place “until fares stabilise or till further review”, the ministry said.
The caps exclude levies like User Development Fee, Passenger Development Fee and other taxes. They do not cover Business class tickets and flights operated under the regional connectivity scheme (UDAN), the order stated.
As for refunding, the ministry cautioned that any delay or non-compliance by Indigo would l invite immediate regulatory action. The system of automatic refunds will remain active until operations stabilise completely.
Indigo quickly responded with a “No questions asked. All refunds for your cancellations will be processed automatically to your original mode of payment.“
The airline also announced full waiver on all cancellations/reschedule requests of bookings made between December 5 and December 15.
In another directive, the ministry directed IndiGo to ensure that all baggage that was separated from passengers due to cancellations or delays be traced and delivered to each passenger’s residential or chosen address within 48 hours.
IndiGo for the first time obliquely quantified the day’s cancellations around 800. “By the end of day, we would have operated over 1,500 flights. With regards to destinations, over 95% of network connectivity has already been re-established as we are able to operate to 135 out of the existing 138 destinations in operations. There is a recovery,” IndiGo said.