Airfare loot misusing travel crisis

The old economic principle is that the price of the product will come down when there is competition between different companies. However, this is not always the case in practice. Branded products are not sold by calculating just the cost and profit required to manufacture them. These are the methods of the new era. Although there are many airlines, they increase ticket prices together without competing on certain occasions. Especially during New Year, Christmas, Onam, and public holidays, they increase the prices by three to four times the normal rate. It should be remembered that their costs do not increase; only their profits increase. Malayalis, Gulf passengers, and others have been victims of such exploitation for years.

Other airlines had increased ticket prices for domestic services by up to five or six times when the IndiGo flights were disrupted in recent days. Some companies have charged more than Rs 50,000 for a flight ticket from Delhi to Kerala. This is like fishing in troubled waters that violates all the principles of business. The financial loss caused by this to those who cannot avoid essential travel is huge. There has been widespread protest against the increase in airfares in the past few days, which is tantamount to robbery. It is welcome that the central government has responded immediately in this regard.

The Civil Aviation Ministry has capped fares based on the distance travelled to prevent arbitrary increases in fares. There will be a user development fee, passenger service fee and taxes in addition. The restrictions will continue until the crisis normalises. The intervention of the Union Civil Aviation Ministry to ensure fair fares is expected to curb looting in the name of air travel. The maximum base fare for domestic services will no longer be more than Rs 18,000. The cap is Rs 7,500 for a journey of 500 km. The fares are not applicable for business class and UDAN flights.

IndiGo had cancelled 850 flights last day due to pilot shortage. This included 33 flights to Kerala. IndiGo has also been granted a relaxation in implementing the new duty rule, Flight Duty Time Limitation, till February 10. The Centre has also directed that the fare of all cancelled or disrupted flights be refunded within a single day. Such steps on the part of the passengers should have been taken by the Ministry of Civil Aviation earlier. In addition to such restrictive measures, the Centre is also considering imposing a heavy penalty on the company for the inconvenience caused to the passengers.