Govt taking high airfares seriously, strengthening DGCA tariff monitoring unit: Aviation minister

The government is taking the high airfares issue seriously and wants to prevent opportunistic pricing situation and is strengthening the tariff monitoring unit of DGCA, Minister of Civil Aviation Kinjarapu Rammohan Naidu informed the Rajya Sabha on Monday.Responding to supplementaries during Question Hour, the minister said the government is taking the issue seriously, while noting that the surge in airfares is generally because it is a deregulated sector.

The government is taking the high airfares issue seriously and wants to prevent opportunistic pricing situation and is strengthening the tariff monitoring unit of DGCA, Minister of Civil Aviation Kinjarapu Rammohan Naidu informed the Rajya Sabha on Monday.

Responding to supplementaries during Question Hour, the minister said the government is taking the issue seriously, while noting that the surge in airfares is generally because it is a deregulated sector. He said in air travel, many stakeholders are involved including CISF.

But, the government makes an effort that passengers do not face any problems at every touchpoint to ensure that air travel is smooth, he noted.

''....the ministry is taking it (airfares) seriously. Tariff monitoring unit of DGCA is being further strengthened. We are monitoring more domestic routes and even international routes. The government wants to prevent the opportunistic pricing situation,'' the minister said.

He said the surge in air prices is generally because it is a deregulated sector and there is a mismatch in the demand and supply. Naidu said that when the demand becomes too high then the prices tend to rise.

Regarding capping of prices on December 6, the minister said, ''we all are aware with Indigo crisis that has happened and we all know how much distress it has caused. One major thing that has happened during the time is the capacity constraints at which Indian aviation was operating.'' IndiGo is the major airline, and curtailment of its operations resulted in huge disruptions and cancellations, he said adding,''So generally the other side of the trend would be rise in airfares. That is exactly why we have to keep the airfares very reasonable and affordable...so we have capped the prices.'' He said airfares may also rise because of other reasons which the ministry closely observes and continuously engages with stakeholders to keep them in check.

''Whenever there might be a situation...we from the ministry are taking action. I can give you other examples also, during Kumbh mela, we have done it, during Pahalgam incident we have done it, during COVID also we have done it. So, whenever there might be a situation when airfares might rise, the ministry is acting upon it and taking necessary action,'' the minister said.

In his written reply to a starred question, Naidu said, ''The ministry regularly monitors the functioning of AirSewa grievance redressal mechanism. Ministry of Civil Aviation undertakes periodic assessment of user feedback received on the portal/mobile application, adherence to prescribed timelines for disposal of grievances and quality of redressal.'' ''Overall level of passenger satisfaction with the grievance redressal mechanism has shown an improving trend over a period of time, particularly with regard to ease of filing complaints and tracking their status. At the same time, certain areas, such as flight delays, timely refunds and baggage delivery, have been identified as focus concerns,'' he said.

The most recent enhancements include introduction of new grievance categories, namely ''Air Fare'' for High Air Fare, providing an opportunity to raise the issue under the Air Sewa portal, which was started in 2016.

Under the portal, the minister said, in 2022 as many as 9,649 complaints were received under the portal and all 9,649 were redressed. In 2023, all 14,116 complaints were redressed and in 2024, all 19,262 complaints were redressed.

In 2025 (January 1 to November 30, 2025) a total of 16,591 complaints were received and 16,309 were redressed while 282 were pending, Naidu said in his written reply.

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