IndiNo: Flight mayhem prompts fare caps; Airfare limits set from Rs 7.5K to Rs 18K depending on distance

NEW DELHI: Private carrier IndiGo cancelled over 800 flights on Saturday, the fifth day of the ongoing crisis, even as the government imposed a cap on airfares and directed the airline to process all refunds by Sunday evening.

The airline’s on time performance from six metro airports plunged to 3.7 per cent on Friday, as per the Civil Aviation ministry website. The government said regulatory action will be initiated against the airline in case of any non-compliance.

After days of chaos triggered by the disruption of flight operations, IndiGo claimed to have re-established 95 per cent of its network connectivity in terms of destinations. The carrier operated to 135 out of the 138 destinations on Saturday and is on course to operate over 1,500 flights by the end of the day, IndiGo said in a statement.

Apologising again, the airline said, “While we understand that we have a long way to go, we are committed to build back the trust of our customers.”

IndiGo, in a statement, also said it is addressing all customer refund issues on “priority”. The refund process for all cancelled or disrupted flights must be completed by 8 pm on Sunday, the Civil Aviation ministry said in a statement.

“Airlines have also been instructed not to levy any rescheduling charges for passengers whose travel plans were affected by cancellations,” it said.

IndiGo has also been instructed to set up a dedicated passenger support and refund facilitation cells.

The low-cost airline had cancelled nearly a thousand flights on Friday, the “most severely impacted day” in terms of cancellations. In its statement, IndiGo said that it “operated a little above 700 flights on Friday connecting 113 destinations”. Crowds at airports thinned out on Saturday, but several irate passengers gathered outside Bengaluru and Mumbai airports as hundreds of flights were cancelled, on the fifth day of a crisis that has hit the country’s biggest airline.

In the two-page order on capping the airfares, the ministry said disruptions in flight operations of one of the scheduled airlines has resulted in flight cancellations, leading to capacity constraints and unreasonable surge in the fares on a number of sectors.

The fare limits, excluding applicable charges, are not applicable for business class and UDAN flights, the ministry said in an order.

However, the order did not provide clarity on whether the caps are applicable for economy class tickets or both economy and premium economy class tickets.

Under the limits, for a flight flying up to 500 kilometres, the fares are capped at Rs 7,500 and for 500-1,000 kilometres, the ticket price cap is Rs 12,000.

For flights operating 1,000-1,500 kilometres, the fares are limited at Rs 15,000 and for above, 1,500 kilometres, the cap is Rs 18,000.

The cap means that for a Delhi-Mumbai flight, which is covered in a distance of over 1,300 kilometres, the fare for at least the economy class is capped at Rs 18,000.

The limits will be in place till the situation stabilises, the ministry said in a statement. It excludes User Development Fee (UDF), Passenger Service Fee (PSF), and taxes on air tickets.

The ministry, in the statement, said it will continue to closely monitor fare levels through real-time data and active coordination with airlines and online travel platforms, adding that any deviation from the prescribed norms will attract immediate corrective action in the larger public interest, it added.

“These fare limits shall be applicable for all forms of bookings, regardless of whether the purchase is made directly through the airline’s official website or through various online travel agents’ platforms,” it said.

The ministry has also asked airlines to avoid steep or unusual upward fare revisions on sectors affected by the cancellations.

An analysis of fares on airlines’ websites on Friday showed that a one-way one-stop economy-class SpiceJet Kolkata-Mumbai flight ticket for December 6 costing up to Rs 90,000, and a similar ticket of Air India for Mumbai-Bhubaneswar going up to Rs 84,485.

Indian Association of Tour Operators (IATO) President Ravi Gosain said unpredictable spikes damage consumer confidence and create chaos for tour operators.

The regulator DGCA provided temporary relief to IndiGo — partially owned by Rahul Bhatia — by rolling back the night duty definition to 12 am-5 am from 12 am-6 am earlier, and allowing its pilots to do six night-landings from two earlier, besides other relaxations.

Meanwhile, the pilots’ body, Airlines’ Pilots Association (ALPA) India, has taken a “strong” objection to the DGCA’s “selective and unsafe” relief to IndiGo, saying that the relaxations have not just “destroyed regulatory parity but also placed millions of passengers at “heightened risk”.

The latest FDTL norms, which entail increased weekly rest periods to 48 hours, extended night hours, and limiting the number of night landings to only two, as against six earlier, were also initially opposed by other domestic airlines, including Tata Group-owned Air India.