Aviation Regulator Asked to Analyse Fare Movements in Past 5 Years: Report

New Delhi: The government has the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to conduct a detailed study of airfares charged by domestic airlines in high density routes during the past five years, amid allegations that carriers steeply hike ticket prices during peak travel seasons.

The latest move also comes against the backdrop of the Civil Aviation Ministry hinting that airfares could be capped if the carriers fail to curb instances of sudden and steep fluctuations in the ticket prices.

The ministry has asked the aviation watchdog to carry out a detailed analysis of airfare movements in the last five years on high density routes, a senior DGCA official said on Friday.

"DGCA will mainly analyse the maximum air ticket prices in various high density routes in the last five years," the official said, adding that a directive in this regard was received by the regulator a few days ago.

Generally, high density routes are those where there are a large number of passengers and such routes include Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Bangalore and Kolkata.

The official said the regulator has just started the process of gathering the relevant data starting from 2011 onwards.

Interestingly, DGCA's recent study about airfare movements in 2014 showed that the average ticket price during peak demand seasons was closer to the minimum fare.

The findings, made public earlier this month, came as an apparent 'clean chit' to the domestic airlines, which face allegations of charging "exorbitant" fares during such seasons.

"The average fare is closer to the minimum fare being offered by the airlines indicating that most of the tickets sold by the airlines are not at exorbitant price," the study had said.

In recent times, concerns have been expressed by various quarters, including by parliamentarians, over steep fluctuations in the movement of air ticket prices.

Minister of State for Civil Aviation Mahesh Sharma said on Thursday that something needs to be done on predatory pricing of airfares. He also emphasised that the efforts would be made with a consensus among airlines on the matter.

"We have taken some initiatives... The process has been initiated. We will try to evolve consensus among airlines and if they do not come on board, we will have to look at other options," he had said.