Domestic air fares have risen “significantly” between April and May this year compared with the same period last year, senior officials of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) said on Saturday.
The DGCA, which has come to this conclusion by looking at domestic air fares on specific days of the month, will now broad base its analysis over a longer period of time to see if any trend is discernible on the sudden spurt in fares.
“There has been a spurt in fares in the last few months but they have not breached the upper levels mandated by the DGCA,” officials said.
Officials indicated that the rise in air fares was largely due to Kingfisher reducing the number of aircraft that it operates. Due to financial stress, the airline has seen its fleet reduce from 64 aircraft earlier this year to 16 aircraft now. The airline is now about 100 daily flights, down from more than 400.
While the peak summer rush normally leads to an increase in demand for air travel and consequently higher fares, the sources said it was also being analysed whether the average costs for the airlines have also gone up during the period.
Travel agents point out that there has been a 20-30 per cent increase in domestic air fares in the past few months. And what is compounding the situation is that air travel demand has increased 10-15 per cent year-on-year.
The President, Travel Agents Association of India, Mr Iqbal Mulla, felt in the past couple of years domestic fares had gone completely haywire.
“Airlines are becoming opportunistic. Neither are they doing anything good for the customer or for the industry. If the fares are unreasonably high you lose a passenger forever,” Mr Mulla said.
He suggests that there should be a regulatory authority to ensure that domestic air fares are “viable for airlines and beneficial for the passengers.”