Lok Sabha Question No. 196 (STARRED), answered on 2019-07-04
Subject: Hike in Air Fares
Ministry: CIVIL AVIATION
Asked by: Kunhalikutty P.K., Ramya  Haridas

*196.

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF CIVIL AVIATION LOK SABHA

STARRED QUESTION NO\_ : 196 (To be answered on the 4th 2019) July

## HIKE IN AIR FARES

## SHRI PK KUNHALIKUTTY MS. RAMYA HARIDAS

## Will the Minister of CIVIL AVIATION

be pleased to state: -

- (a) whether a high air fare is being charged by airlines for the route 0f Calicut and Gulf countries specially during the last weeks of and in the month of June, festive seasons and also during holiday seasons; May
- (b) if so, the details thereof and the reasons therefor with the action taken by the Government in this regard; along
- (c) whether the Government has received any complaints from NRIs in the Gulf region in this regard;
- (d) if so, the details thereof and the action taken by the Government thereon; and
- (e) the steps proposed to be taken to have a reasonable air fare throughout the year?

## ANSWER

Minister of State (IC) in the Ministry of CIVIL AVIATION

(Shri Hardeep Singh Puri)

- (a) to (e): A statement is laid on the table of the House:

Statement referred in reply to Part (a) to (e) of Lok Sabha Starred Ques No. 196 regarding "Hike in Air Fares' to be answered on 04.07.2019\_

- (a) Fares are determined by market forces of demand and supply: The suspension of operations of Jet Airways and grounding of Boeing 737 Max constrained the supply side. As per the data received from the airlines, there has been a small hike in the average fare on some sectors from Kerala to Gulf:
- (b): The steps taken by the Government to increase the capacity on international flights from Kerala are as under:
- (ii) Some Indian carriers started new flights from Calicut Airport to the destinations in Gulf:
- (i) Calicut Airport was opened for wide body operations from December, 2018 and MIs Saudi Airlines commenced daily scheduled operations with wide body aircraft from Calicut to Jeddah and Riyadh from Sth December, 2018.
- (iii) Kannur Airport was opened in the month of December, 2018 and Indian carriers like Air India Express, Indigo airlines and Go Air have commenced services to foreign destinations from Kannur Airport: The total services to foreign destinations from this airport are 40 services per week in Summer 2019.
- (iv) The traffic rights of Jet Airways have been allocated to other Indian carriers and are in the process of commencing operations. they
- (c) to (d): A number of requests were received from time to time regarding issue of hike in airfare on India-Gulf Sector. Government has taken various steps to ease the pressure on fares as listed in (b) above:

With the repeal of Air Corporation Act in March,1994, the provision of air fare approval was dispensed with by the Government Airlines are free to fix the reasonable tariff under the provision of Sub-rule (1) of Rule 135, Aircraft Rules 1937 having regard to all  relevant factors including the cost of operation, characteristics of service, reasonable and the generally prevailing tariff: The airline pricing system runs in multiple levels [buckets or Reservation Booking Designator (RBDs)] which are in line with practice being followed globally. The prices are fixed by airlines keeping in mind the market; demand, seasonality and other market forces. The airfare increases with increase in demand of seat as the lower fare buckets sold out fast when bookings are offered by airlines. Some of the airlines have introduced Apex-90, in addition to existing advance purchase schemes of 60 days, 30 days, 14 days in which highly discounted fares offered which would entail travelling even during peak seasons on low fares The fare structures stated above have been displayed by airlines on their websites The airlines are compliant to the Sub Rule (2) of Rule 135 of the Aircraft Rules, 1937 as long as the fare charged by them is in line with fare displayed on their website: As per prevailing regulation, all scheduled airlines are required to display route-wise and category-wise fares on their respective websites: profit get being etc ,

- (e) DGCA monitors the fares regularly and the Government has advised the airlines to keep the fares at reasonable levels.