India / Lower fare band for domestic flights to be hiked by 5%: Centre

NEW DELHI: Flying will cost more as the government on Friday hiked with immediate effect lower domestic fare bands by 5%, while extending the validity of air fare ranges by a month. This will remain in force till April-end.

Coming ahead of the summer travel season, this is the second hike in domestic airfares in just over a month and has been necessitated by the increase in aviation turbine fuel (ATF) prices. The aviation ministry had last month hiked minimum domestic fares by 10% and a maximum of 30%.

The Delhi-Mumbai air fare will now be in the range of Rs 4,095-13,000, up from Rs 3,900-13,000 since February 11 and the original range of Rs 3,500-10,000 set in May 2020. These are economy one-way fares that do not include airport user fees, passenger security fees (Rs 150 for domestic) and GST.

Airlines are currently required to sell at least 20% seats at fares below the mid-point of minimum and maximum fares.

“There has been a continuous rise in the price of ATF so it has been decided to increase the lower fare band by 5% keeping the upper fare band unchanged,” aviation minister H S Puri tweeted Friday.

Also, airlines will have to limit their domestic capacity to 80% of pre-Covid times till April-end as air travel has taken a hit this month due to the changing testing requirements of different states amid rising Covid cases. Puri says scheduled domestic flights may be allowed to return to 100% of pre-Covid levels “when daily passenger traffic crosses 3.5 lakh on three occasions (days) in a month”. This decision was taken as the “last few days have seen a decline in the number of air passengers largely due to restrictions and imposition of compulsory RT-PCR tests by various states,” Puri tweeted.

The extension of fare bands means domestic passengers flying without check-in bags will have to wait longer for cheaper light fares. The DGCA last month paved the way for airlines to offer much lower light fares for domestic flights by removing an earlier requirement that handbag-only fares could be lower by a maximum of Rs 200 from the lowest level check-in baggage-inclusive fares. However this change will be effective only when fare bands for domestic flights are done away with.