DGCA raises fare cap, air travel to be dearer

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, February 13

Air travel is set to get costlier from April 1, with the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) revising airfare bands sensing recovery of the sector and air traffic nearing pre-Covid levels.

The air traffic has improved following a government decision to allow airlines to operate at 80 per cent of the scheduled capacity.

With DGCA’s airfare band revision, domestic air travel would get costlier by 10 to 30 per cent, depending on the duration of the flight.

Minister for Civil Aviation Hardeep Singh Puri today said, “We had 2,97,102 passengers on 2,349 flights on February 12, the highest since resumption of domestic flights on May 25, 2020. With air travel emerging as a preferred mode of travel due to safety and efficiency, we are almost touching pre-Covid numbers.”

The Union minister’s remarks signaled a definite surge in demand for air travel. Taking a cue from the government, the DGCA has now announced a new price band beginning April 1.

Airlines were adversely hit during Covid and reported massive losses in the last quarter. The rise in air fares, sector experts say, will help boost the finances of airline operators. As per the order, minimum fare on all seven sectors has been increased by 10-12 per cent and the limit on maximum fare has been raised by around 30 per cent. The seven sectors have been classified on the basis of approximate duration of flight.

For instance, for flights with the duration of 90 to 120 minutes, the lower fare cap has been increased to Rs 3,900 from Rs 3,500, whereas the cap on maximum chargeable fare has been increased to Rs 13,000 from Rs 10,000. Routes like Varanasi-Jaipur, Ahmedabad-Kolkata, Bengaluru-Bhopal and Delhi-Bhubaneshwar among others fall under this category.

Earlier, airfares on domestic routes were capped from May 25, 2020, with an intention to allow air services to resume without a massive drop or rise in prices. Domestic flights resumed after a two-month shutdown due to the Covid outbreak.

As per the third-quarter results for the current financial year, SpiceJet reported a net loss of Rs 57 crore as against a profit of Rs 77.9 crore during the same period last year.