Aviation minister says customer is king, promises probe into allegations of abrupt air fare hike

Union Civil Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu Kinjarapu

Union Civil Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu Kinjarapu on Thursday promised to conduct an inquiry into allegations of abrupt fare hike when MPs try to book tickets on Air Vistara airline, following complaints by MPs and a nudge by Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla.

Raising the issue during Question Hour in Lok Sabha through a supplementary question, DMK member Dayanidhi Maran alleged that whenever he tries to book ticket on Air Vistara for the Chennai-Delhi route, initially it shows a price in the range of around Rs 25,000.

However, by the time he concludes the whole booking process, the fare goes up by two to three times more, he alleged.

The DMK leader wondered whether some technology applied by TCS, a software giant belonging to the same Tata group, drives up the air fare.

Intervening in the discussion, Birla said he had received similar complaints from a few other MPs too and the matter should be thoroughly investigated as the "money of the tickets goes from Parliament".

At this, the minister replied: "We will get the matter inquired".

Parliament sources said the MPs are entitled to travel by business class.

Replying to another question, Naidu said ever since he has taken over the charge of the civil aviation ministry, he has been trying make air travel affordable for the common people.

However, he said, the air fare is market driven and lots of factors come into play while deciding the fare of any sector.

"Customer is king and that is the priority of the ministry. We will do whatever we can to make the air travel affordable," he said.

The minister also said that he will look into the allegations of high air fare during holiday season on international routes.

"As far as regulation of airfare is concerned, the government does not regulate the fares set by airlines- Indian or foreign. The fares on any route are dependent on seasonality, holidays and festivals, cost of aviation turbine fuel, competition and other similar factors," he said.

Naidu said airline pricing runs in multiple levels (buckets or RBDs) which are in line with the practice being followed globally and due to dynamic fare pricing, the tickets bought in advance are much cheaper than those purchased near the travel date. He said under the provisions of Rule 135(1) of the Aircraft Rules, 1937, the airlines are free to fix tariffs, having regard to all relevant factors, including cost of operation, characteristics of services, generally prevailing tariff etc.

"DGCA's Tariff Monitoring Unit (TMU) ensures that the fares being charged by the airlines are as per the tariff established by the airlines. At present, there is no proposal in the ministry to intervene with the existing regulatory framework on airfare," he said. a