Air travel becomes costlier as Govt raises fare caps

Domestic air travel has become costlier as the Ministry of Civil Aviation has raised the lower as well as upper caps on fares by 9.83 to 12.82 per cent, modifying its previous order. It has also allowed Airlines to operate a maximum of 72.5 per cent of their pre-Covid domestic flights instead of the 65 per cent allowed till date. The actual price, however, will be more than this as the caps mentioned by the government in its order does not include the passenger security fee, user development fee for the airports and the GST. The lower limit for flights under 40 minutes of duration was raised from Rs 2,600 to Rs 2,900 - an increase of 11.53 per cent, the Civil Aviation Ministry order said. The upper cap for flights under 40 minutes of duration was increased by 12.82percent to Rs 8,800. Similarly, flights with duration between 40-60 minutes have a lower limit of Rs 3,700 instead of Rs 3,300 now, the order said. Now, domestic flights of duration between 90-120, 120-150, 150-180 and 180-210 minutes have lower caps of Rs  5,300, Rs 6,700, Rs 8,300 and Rs 9,800, respectively, as per the ministry's order.

This is the 4th time that the flight ticket prices have been revised. Ticket prices were revised in February, May and June. The hike in the air traffic fuel price is the reason for the consecutive hikes. Now,  Delhi-Mumbai one-way minimum fare will rise from Rs  4,700 to Rs 5287.5 and the maximum fare will rise from Rs 13,000 to Rs 14,625 (taxes extra). The revision comes at a time when domestic travel has picked momentum and with other countries relaxing lockdown restrictions on Indian flights, international passenger flights to several destinations are resuming.

According to the government, the lower caps were imposed to help the airlines that have been struggling financially after the coronavirus crisis. The upper caps were imposed so that passengers are not charged huge amounts when the demand for seats is high, it had said. The government's order on Thursday said that the latest revisions were done keeping in mind the "prevailing situation of COVID-19" in the country.