2 in 3 travellers want pre-pandemic govt fare caps back as air-fares soar

A recent survey by LocalCircles reveales that soaring air fares have worried travellers and two out of three fliers want the government to bring back an upper and lower limit on air fares like the pre-pandemic days, the Livemint reported.

With over 22,000 responses from consumers located across 297 districts, the survey asked fliers on rising cost of travel and weather the government should restore the pre-Covid price cap on air faires.

47 per cent of the respondents were from Tier-1, 34 per cent from Tier-2, and 19 per cent respondents were from Tier-3,4 and rural districts.

On the question of bringing back fare caps, to which around 12,193 responses were received, 65 per cent of respondents were in favour of a limit on fares while 21 per cent voted against it.

India had suspended scheduled commercial passenger flights for two-months before resuming domestic flights from May 2020, but had also imposed seven sets of floor and ceiling for seven categories of route lengths covering the entire domestic network.

After more than two years, the government removed the fare caps with from August 31 and left the fairs determination on market forces of demand and supply.

According to the report, the discontinuation of fare caps by the government had led to a 30 per cent drop in airfares across routes in September, which came as a relief to travellers who had to pay up eye-watering fares over the previous months due to soaring fuel prices.

As the demand is expected to rise until December fares are set to be higher in the current quarter.

The LocalCircles survey also highlighted complains from respondents on more expensive fares by low-cost carriers as compared to full-service airlines. 79 per cent respondents to the survey said that they experienced steeper fares for a no-frills service at times during the past 12 months. Nearly, 50 per cent respondents said that they have found low-cost airline fares more costly than a full-service and this occured ‘very often’ over the last 12 months; 22 per cent said they experienced this ‘sometimes,’ while 7 per cent respondents said that they encountered such a situation ‘once in a while.’