New Delhi: The union government is working with the airlines to increase capacity across sectors to check spiralling air fares.
“To ensure passenger convenience, stable operations and affordable fares, MoCA is working with airlines to provide sufcient capacity across the entire network. We continue to monitor safety and compliance on a daily basis,” the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) tweeted.
The ministry directed all airlines to follow the Passenger Charter requirements comprehensively.
The development came after a meeting between the Civil Aviation Secretary Pradeep Singh Kharola and airlines' representatives. On Tuesday, a similar meeting was held between the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) and the airlines.
Crippled by economic woes, many airlines had grounded their flights even before the suspension of Boeing 737-MAX aircraft came into effect.
Since March 14, passengers have had to face high fares and fewer choices leading to a slow down of growth rate in February at 5.62 per cent.
According to industry insiders, with no short-term relief in sight, some sectors will continue to see a rise of more than 100 per cent in case of last minute bookings. Seasonal factors contributed to this slow down as well.
A part of Jet Airways' fleet has already been grounded due to other reasons. Jet grounded over 40 aircraft due to non-payment of dues. Budget carrier IndiGo is going through massive turbulence on account of pilot shortage, leading to a truncated flight schedule. The airline said earlier 30 of its flights have been affected, and has decided to curtail its schedule till March 31 by about 30 flights a day.
For sometime now, Air India grounded 17 aircraft due to technical reasons. The national carrier has also cancelled several international flights on account of low passenger yields. The airline said six international flights from Delhi to places like Birmingham and Madrid have been cancelled.
Passenger traffic growth slows
Domestic air passenger traffic growth slowed further in February owing to high air fares even as airlines continued to cancel flights due to various reasons. According to industry observers, seasonal factors too contributed to the slowing of growth rate in February at 5.62 per cent to 1.13 crore.
In January, the number of passengers flown by domestic airlines grew at 9.10 per cent on the year-on-year basis, while in December 2018 it increased by 11.03 per cent, the DGCA said in its monthly domestic traffic report here on Wednesday.
