After Go First gets grounded, Centre asks airlines to keep fares at affordable levels

The Centre has asked the airlines to make sure the upper limit for price tickets is not too high on routes where Go First was a major player.

A few days after crisis-hit Go First was grounded, the Centre asked airlines to keep fares at affordable levels after it found that airfares on certain routes were spiking rapidly. Go First, which was undergoing insolvency resolution proceedings, stopped flying from May 3.

Further, the civil aviation ministry has asked the airlines to make sure the upper limit for ticket price is not too high on routes where Go First was a major player.

“There should not be a huge gap between the upper ceiling and lower ceiling. The airfares should remain moderate,” PTI quoted a senior government official as saying. The Centre has no intention to regulate airfares, he mentioned.

The April-June period is considered the peak season for airlines as schools are shut for summer holidays and many people go for leisure trips.

Also Read: Go First crisis 'certainly not great for aviation sector': Scindia

Highlighting that capacity is an issue, the official hoped that resumption of flight operations by Go First at the earliest would help alleviate the situation before the peak travel season in June.

Go First has cancelled flights till May 26. Also, many planes of budget airline IndiGo, India’s top airline with 54.6 percent market share, are grounded because of Pratt & Whitney engine issues, while Delhi-based low-cost airline SpiceJet is also facing financial troubles.

Go First’s top five routes include Delhi-Srinagar, Delhi-Leh, Mumbai-Goa, Delhi-Mumbai and Delhi-Pune.

On these routes, the government has observed that the spot airfares have spiked rapidly after the cash-strapped airline's exit.

The average one-way spot fare, for instance, on Delhi-Leh route saw a steep jump of 125 percent to an average of Rs 13,674 during the May 3-10 period as against April 20-28 period, according to reports citing data shared by travel portal Ixigo.

On March 16, Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia informed the Lok Sabha that ticket prices of airlines are neither established, nor regulated by the government.