NEW DELHI: Despite the government’s request to self-monitor airfares, airlines continue to sell tickets at very high prices. When checked on Tuesday, a single one-way ticket price for Wednesday in the economy class on the Delhi-Mumbai route was being sold between Rs 16,000 and Rs 28,000.
Similarly, for the Delhi-Chennai route, a single ticket was sold between Rs 13,000 and Rs 41,000 for flights on Wednesday in economy class. For Kolkata to Chennai, the same was between Rs 20,000 and Rs 32,000 while for Delhi to Bengaluru, the fares were between Rs 15,000 and Rs 34,000.
As airfares have surged up to 10 times on select routes in the last few weeks, aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia on Monday held a meeting with the representatives of airlines and asked them to self-regulate ticket prices, especially on the routes where a big vacuum is created due to the grounding of Go First.
“The airlines must self-monitor airfares on certain select routes that have seen considerable surge pricing of late, particularly those that were earlier being serviced by Go First - a mechanism for ensuring reasonable pricing within the high RBDs (Reservation Booking Designator) may be devised by airlines. This shall be monitored by the aviation sector regulator DGCA,” Scindia had said after meeting the Airlines Advisory Group.
When asked if they are adhering to the minister’s suggestion, two leading carriers- Air India and IndiGo - did not issue a comment.
Airfares have skyrocketed since the grounding of cash-strapped Go First on May 3. The carrier, which is going through insolvency proceedings, used to carry 8-9 lakh passengers per month.
The suspension of its flight is helping other airlines to benefit from the vacuum created, especially during the peak summer season.
Airfares have skyrocketed across metro city routes and across centres such as Ahmedabad, Pune, Leh and Srinagar where Go First had a strong presence. Owing to this, Delhi-Leh’s return fares crossed Rs 50,000 some days back.