India’s regulator the Directorate General of Civil Aviation will keep a very close eye on airfares following the grounding of all Boeing 737 MAX 8 flights.
It has warned airlines to keep airfares at a sensible level and not to gouge customers.
The DGCA told airlines ‘not to exploit the situation.’
It said airlines have been advised of their responsibility to keep airfares affordable amid an already testing time for the country’s aviation.
Fares have already been on the rise due to the closing of airspace in neighbouring Pakistan recently and the troubles of Jet Airways, which was forced to ground nearly half its fleet due to missed payments to lessors.
India’s largest carrier IndiGo has also suffered from a period of higher flight cancellations than normal.
"We have advised the airlines they should not use the grounding as a reason to hike their fares," civil aviation secretary Pradeep Singh Kharola told the media.
There have been double digit increases in fares for these combination of reasons with online travel platform Yatra.com expecting rises to continue.
"The shortage of planes and high seat occupancies are expected to push air fares north in the short term. The fares were at least 15 per cent higher this year compared to last year. Owing to the current situation, they are expected to rise further this season," said Sharat Dhall, COO of Yatra.com.
Aloke Bajpai, CEO and co-founder, Ixigo, said: "Grounding of additional planes will further impact fares which were already high this season."
Budget carrier SpiceJet was most impacted by the Boeing 737 MAX 8 ban with 12 jets grounded, but it doesn’t expect it to severely affect operations.
"SpiceJet is rationalising and optimising the use of its Boeing 737 NG and Bombardier Q400 aircraft to address the current situation and minimize inconvenience to its passengers," it said in a statement.
