Skyrocketing of air fares

This is happening every year now, and this has happened again this time of the year. The airfares to Srinagar have skyrocketed.

This at a time when the tourist season has started gaining momentum and record number of visitors are expected this year. According to reports, travel to Kashmir has become costlier than the international trips.

The average airfare from Delhi to Srinagar, is witnessing a jump from Rs 4,000-5,000 to Rs 12,000-15,000. Fares to other cities across the country have also seen a sharp spike. If this trend continues, it can hit the tourism sector.

Last year also when a similar situation had arisen, the tourists had started showing reluctance in visiting Kashmir with such higher airfare. Not only the visitors but the people in Kashmir travelling outside too had to bear the brunt. They included students studying outside, or others moving out of Valley for work or medical reasons.

Prominent people from different walks of life including business community have appealed for intervention at the government level to bring the airfares under control at the earliest. This situation arises since the observations and recommendations made by the parliamentary standing committee from time to time are not taken seriously. If the recommendations were taken seriously and implemented, the air travellers would not have been facing such a problem. The travel would have been affordable.

This year a Parliamentary Standing Committee on Transport, Tourism, and Culture had suggested that the Indian aviation regulator the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) be empowered to regulate tariffs on domestic flights. According to its report, the committee had found multiple instances where domestic airlines increased airfares around festivals and holidays.

The committee also asked for the DGCA to monitor airfares to ensure that airlines do not increase prices unfairly.

The parliamentary panel also proposed route-specific capping of airfares. Last year a parliamentary standing committee had stated that the high airfares imposed by some airline operators in the domestic sector, as well as the tactics being employed in costing, were misleading public and pushing consumers to pay more.

The committee had particularly referred to the tactics being used by the airline operators for hilly areas including Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh. The committee had recommended that the Civil Aviation Ministry formulate appropriate guidelines regarding the rationalisation of fares.

There is a need to implement these recommendations to protect the air passengers from the alleged fleecing by some airline operators.