The year 2011 has ushered in more transparency in ticket fares for passengers, making it mandatory for airlines to include surcharges as part of the basic fare, instead of as part of taxes that are then deducted in case of cancellation.
The year 2011 has ushered in more transparency in ticket fares for passengers, making it mandatory for airlines to include surcharges as part of the basic fare, instead of as part of taxes that are then deducted in case of cancellation.
This will put more money in the pockets of passengers in the case of cancellations.
The directorate general of civil aviation’s (DGCA) efforts to make airlines show charges such as fuel surcharge and air congestion charge as part of base fare (and not taxes) has finally borne fruit. DNA checked the websites of all the domestic airlines and found that all of them except GoAir have made the surcharges a component of base fare. “This is actual transparency for passengers, as earlier the airline would display surcharges as taxes on the tickets issued and deduct it in case of cancellations,” says Rajesh Rateria, Chairman, Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI).
The Air Passengers Association of India had raised this issue with the regulator at a meeting of the Civil Aviation Economic Advisory Council last month.
“Though this has taken over two years to materialise, we are happy to find that most of the airlines are now complying with the DGCA regulation and displaying their airfare more clearly, with the various components marked out,” said Sudhakara Reddy, president, APAI.
In the beginning of 2010, the DGCA had asked airlines to adhere to the air transport circular issued to airlines in May 2008 that instructed them not to show surcharges as taxes. The then DGCA Nasim Zaidi, who is now the civil aviation secretary, had also asked the airlines to refund the surcharges in case of cancellation, since they are not taxes and do not go to the government’s account. In fact, he had stressed that if the passenger has not traveled, then even the taxes should be refunded to him.
“As most airlines refund only the base fare in case of cancellations, making surcharges a part of base fare will ensure huge savings for passengers,” said Rateria. “This will be especially so on international flights where surcharges constitute a huge chunk of the fare,” he said.
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