As IndiGo crisis continues, airlines take advantage charging high fare

As flight service disruptions continued for the third consecutive day after IndiGo grappled with severe operational issues fuelled by cabin crew shortages and other internal issues, other airline companies have responded by rising the airfares, taking advantage of the situation. The airfares to Kerala from various cities, including Delhi and Mumbai, were jacked up tenfold, leaving hundreds of passengers stranded in various cities seemingly toscrape the bottom of the barrel to reach home.

Speaking to The Hindu, Renu Franklin, a native of Thiruvananthapuram and an IT professional who is now stranded at the Guwahati airport, said she was part of a group of 24 women travellers who had gone to Nagaland to attend the Hornbill Festival. The team came back to Guwahati on Friday evening from Dimapur. By the time they reached the airport, the IndiGo issue had already spiralled into a full-blown crisis across the country. While several of them were unable to fly from Guwahati, many are stranded in other parts of the country, including in Delhi.

“The IndiGo Airlines has assured a flight on Saturday morning after cancelling the service scheduled on Friday. It is still not sure whether the flight will depart as they promised. While the Air India tickets forFriday and Saturdayare fully sold out, fare for the upcoming days are charged exorbitantly high,” said Ms. Franklin. 

As per the fares quoted by various booking sites as of Friday, a Delhi to Thiruvananthapuram ticket on Sunday is sold at a price band of ₹49,380- ₹68,964, which is otherwise available in the price range of ₹6,000 to ₹7,500.   A Mumbai-Kochi Air India ticket is priced at ₹34,000 on Sunday, and a Mumbai-Thiruvananthapuram ticket is at ₹33,389 on the same day.

While the disruption of the IndiGo services also has an impact on the international sector, the dynamic pricing is not in proportion to the domestic sector. A Dubai-Thiruvananthapuram low-budget air ticket is priced between ₹30,000 and ₹36,000 on Sunday by the Air India Express, while Air Arabia is charging ₹34,500 to ₹35,500 for the same ticket on the same day.

There is no clarity on the size and scale of refund being provided by airlines in the event of cancellation, rescheduling, or prolonged delays of services, said K.V. Muraleedharan, president of the Kerala Association of Travel Agents. However,the companies would start levying cancellation charges from passengers, starting from ₹3,000, hardly a few seconds after the ticket is booked.

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation should make necessary amendments to its rules to ensure that compensation is provided in proportion to the hardship caused by the airlines to the passengers, he said.  

Meanwhile, Binoy Viswam, State secretary of the Communist Party of India, in a statement here on Friday, asked for the urgent intervention of the Ministry of Civil Aviation to end the fleecing of the passengers by the airline companies. “Charging ₹51,000 for a Mumbai-Delhi ticket could only be treated as daylight robbery by the companies, “ he said.