The Director-General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has come to the aid of air travellers who were falling prey to low-fare schemes on travel portals.
In a communication to the airlines on Wednesday, the DGCA has asked them not to participate in any scheme where complete information about the carrier is not revealed upfront.
This follows revelation by Jet Airways that a number of travel portals were using this scheme to sell the inventory which they had bought from Kingfisher. The travel portals were selling tickets without disclosing the name of the carrier.
On investigations, the DGCA found that the airlines were participating in scheme where a special fare — ‘Opaque' fare — was being offered by the portals. Under such schemes, the identity of neither the carrier nor flight details are revealed till the payment is through and ticketing done.
The DGCA said this is in violation of aircraft rules 1937. A DGCA official said that this is almost cheating the passenger especially when somebody books a ticket on the basis of very low fare and then finds the flight is of Kingfisher Airlines.