‘Fliers may not get booking discounts’

MUMBAI: Passengers might not be able to avail discounts while booking their flights in the near future. The aviation ministry restricted the airlines from deciding fares on their own as the civil aviation ministry capped airfares range-bound after domestic travel resumed in a phased manner on May 24, 2020. This capping on ticket prices impacted discounts that airlines roll out to attract passengers.

According to the report by brokerage Motilal Oswal Financial Services, the continuation of capping of airfares by the government in the long term may prove to be a huge dampener on the aviation industry as a whole, besides weakening sentiment for the regulated market. The report had pointed out that the average ticket price in the last quarter of the previous year was at a discount of 7% to 23% to the median fares prescribed by the government, compared with a discount of 29% to 47% in the first quarter of 2020, when there was no ceiling on fares.

Ajay Prakash, ex-president of

Travel Agents Association of India and CEO of Nomad Travels said, “The capping of airfares is unfair to the airlines. Even now when the ministry has reduced the capping per cent from 40 to 20, it will barely give some space to the airline considering the amount of huge loss the airlines have undergone in the past few months.” Rajji Rai, chairman of Swift group of companies said, “Even if the ministry decides to do away with the capping, the airlines will continue to suffer losses as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.” However, Jay Bhatia, vice president of TAAI said most airlines have already started announcing special airfares post-April ‘21 and that their promos will attract travellers.

The civil aviation ministry capped domestic fares in May 2020.