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New Delhi: There has been considerable reduction in airfares after the Centre stepped in and announced capping of flight ticket prices on Saturday. The Central government was forced to intervene after airfares of all airlines skyrocketed in the face of the IndiGo crisis. The government pulled up the airlines, for what it called "opportunistic pricing".
The government then announced price capping on air tickets, so as to prevent "exploitation of passengers in distress." As a result of this, on Sunday, airfares to major cities came down drastically.
Following the capping of airfares by the government, the fare for a Mumbai-Delhi flight for the coming 3 days is showing as Rs 6,135, while the Delhi_Bengaluru flight fares start at Rs 6,363.
The Delhi-Pune flight tickets cost Rs 5,495 on Sunday. The fare for a Delhi-Kolkata flight from December 8 onwards is Rs 8,595, as seen on major travel websites. Those travelling between Delhi and Chandigarh will have to pay Rs 3,223 for a one-way flight.
The government was forced to announce airfare capping, after some airlines started to charge exorbitant airfares, in the face of IndiGo flight disruptions. On Friday at least 1,000 IndiGo flights were cancelled, across the country. Passengers were being forced to pay more than double the usual price in some cases, when they were trying to buy tickets in other airlines, like Air India, AI Express, Akasa and SpiceJet.
Meanwhile for the fifth consecutive day on Sunday, IndiGo announced cancellations of several of its flights. While some flights of the airlines were cancelled from Pune, the Mumbai-Prayagraj flight was scheduled to take off. On the other hand the flight between Mumbai and Lucknow remained cancelled for the day, announced the airline.
A woman passenger claimed that she had bought a Mumbai-Lucknow air ticket for Rs 17,000. IndiGo however had cancelled that flight.
A similar situation unfolded in Jaipur, where several IndiGo flights remained cancelled. At least 11 flights from the airport in the city were cancelled since morning. The flights which have been cancelled include, the Jaipur-Bengaluru flight, 6E-839, Jaipur-Goa flight 6E-6977, Jaipur-Hyderabad flight 6E-752, the Jaipur-Guwahati flight 6E-78, Jaipur-Mumbai flight 6E-6592, Jaipur-Kolkata flight 6E- 207, Jaipur-Bengaluru flight 6E-6503, another Jaipur-Kolkata flight 6E-6247, Jaipur-Chennai flight 6E-5362, Jaipur-kolkata flight 6E-6568 and Jaipur-Delhi flight 6E-130.
Meanwhile following the chaos that unfolded due to the IndiGo crisis, a Parliamentary Committee on Transport, Tourism and Civil Aviation has been set up to look into the matter. Representatives of IndiGo, other airlines and DGCA officials will be summoned by the committee. The officials from the Civil Aviation Ministry will also be called by the committee to discuss the situation.
According to sources, this committee headed by JD(U) MP Sanjay Kumar Jha will seek answers from all stakeholders. They will also try to find ways so that such disruptions are not caused in future.
One must note that several ministers and MPs were also inconvenienced due to cancellation of flights. A number of them are also part of this committee. Several MPs have also said that they got calls from passengers telling them about the problems they had been facing due to cancellation of flights by IndiGo.
The committee will also discuss the issue of other airlines raising the ticket prices in the face of the current crisis. Amidst the chaos, CPM MP, John Brittas has written to the Prime Minister, demanding that a Joint Parliamentary Committee and a judicial commission be formed to probe the entire matter.
