Implementation of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Transport, Tourism and Culture’s recommendations that tabled its report in Parliament earlier this week could help solve the problem of rising domestic air ticket prices and offer seamless connectivity at airports across the country.
The report was tabled at a time when oil prices are heading northwards thanks to the Ukraine crisis and it is widely expected that domestic airlines will raise fares thus passing on some of the burden to domestic flyers to off-set some of the increase in their operational costs.
In fact, Ronojoy Dutta, whole time director and chief executive officer of IndiGo, issued a statement on Wednesday saying that over the past few weeks, crude oil prices have soared to a seven-year high nearing $140 per barrel due to the ongoing conflict in Europe. “This has resulted in over 50% aviation turbine fuel price hike from January 2022 till date, including the 18% hike on Wednesday,” he added.
Fortunately for flyers, no domestic airline has announced a hike in domestic fares, but Dutta’s statement gives enough of a hint about the cost pressures that the airlines are facing.
With the Ukraine war showing no signs of getting over in a hurry, implementing the Committee’s report will ensure that airlines do not use the pretext of rising oil prices to hike fares exorbitantly at a time when the domestic aviation market is bouncing back and is expected to reach its pre-covid daily passenger loads of about 400,000 fliers a day.
In a well thought out and argued report, the Committee maintains that while it is justifiable that the private airline operators should be given a free hand to fix the airfares as they are governed by the competition it also draws the attention of the ministry of civil aviation to the provision in the Aircraft Rules, 1937, which specifically mention that “the fares should be reasonable and should maintain reasonable profit”.
Further, the Committee also adds that a balance must be maintained between airlines’ commercial interests and the flyers’ interests. It states in its report that passengers should not be fleeced in the garb of commercialization and therefore, recommends that the ministry should maintain a close watch on the fare pricing by airlines. It also recommends that at least for the same sector, route, and duration of the flight, the ministry should issue guidelines to all the private airlines to ensure fares that are similar or with the least variations.
The Committee also recommends that fixing of different fares for selection of seats in the same flight is “arbitrary and unjustifiable”. Hence, it adds that all the seats on a flight should have the same fare. Private airlines charge a premium for some seats like a passenger flying on the first row of IndiGo or SpiceJet has to pay extra over and above the cost of the air ticket.
However, it must be highlighted that these are recommendations by the Committee and the government is not bound to act on them and implement them. But these recommendations will act as a signpost for the government about developing a political consensus on policy because opposition members are also on parliamentary committees.
Moving away from airlines, the Committee also recommends that airports should have adequate connectivity with roads and railways to ensure the optimum utilization of airports. The Committee emphasizes the urgent need to ensure that proper coordination is achieved between the concerned ministries/departments, to connect airports with all other means of transport such as roads, metros and railways so that tourists/flyers reach their destinations from the airports in a smooth and safe manner. Further, the Committee is also of the opinion that the ministry should collaborate with the state governments and other stakeholders to ensure that land is allocated within a specific time frame for ensuring adequate road and rail connectivity to the airports.
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