A senior DGCA official said it has been receiving various complains about the cancellation charges and the guidelines were being worked out.
In what could be a good news for fliers, country's aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) is mulling capping cancellation charges levied by airlines below the base airfare.
"We are receiving various suggestions for implementing and one among them is to cap the cancellation charges below the base fare. The guidelines are being worked out," said a senior DGCA official.
None of the airlines was immediately available for comment.
The development comes amid the scores of complaints being received by civil aviation ministry and DGCA, whereby politicians, passengers associations, corporates, and common fliers have complained of the increase in cancellation charges adopted by all the airlines operating in India under a cartel.
There have been instances of passengers not getting any refund on cancellation of tickets as there are various tax components including airport tax.
The Air Passengers Association of India (APAI), an association of air fliers, had even approached fair trade watchdog Competition Commission of India (CCI) over the issue. Sudhakara Reddy, founder & national president, APAI, had earlier told dna, "Frequent increase in cancellation charges by the airlines in India is nothing but a cartel. There are hardly differences of Rs 50 in cancellation charges of the airlines. How come all of them increase the similar charges at the similar time?"
According to the aviation industry insiders, the cancellation charges have increased several times by some of the airlines in the past over a year followed by rival carriers. For example, last year one of the leading carriers had three slabs for flight cancellation charges -- Rs 1,250 for cancellations up to 30 days before flight; Rs 1,500 for cancellation from 30 days to a week before departure and Rs 2,000 for a week before flight time. These charges have been revised to be between 1,900 and Rs 2,250, depending on the number of days before the booking is cancelled.
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