Airlines come up with new ways to charge pax to boost revenue

Increase in date change charges, free check-in baggage limit of 20 kg for domestic will be reduced upto 25% and more weight will cost Rs 200 per kg, Unaccompanied minors will be charged additional Rs 1500-3000

Travel News
Travel News

Financially-strained Indian carriers have started looking at every possible way to make money. Domestic airlines in the country, which collectively lost $2 billion last fiscal, have hiked existing fees and introduced a host of new ones in last two to three months to boost revenue. 

The free check-in baggage limit of 20 kg for domestic flyers is all set to be reduced by 20% to 25% and carrying more weight will mean shelling out Rs 200 per kg. This excess charge used to be Rs 100 per kg in domestic airlines till about two months ago. 

Cancelling or changing travel date had so far meant paying Rs 750 for both domestic and international tickets. Now this charge has risen to Rs 950 for domestic and Rs 1,750 for international flights. Taking a licensed weapon on a flight is no longer free. Airlines have started charging Rs 5,000 for this service. Asking the airline reservation counter to give a printout of your e-ticket now would cost Rs 50. 

 

Airlines used to take unaccompanied minors (children till 12 years of age) free of further costs so far. Now low-cost carriers have started charging an additional Rs 1,500 on domestic and Rs 3,000 on international flights for taking care of your child travelling alone. A leading full service carrier has started charging Rs 1,000 and Rs 2,000 for taking an unaccompanied minor on domestic and international flights, respectively as per a report in TOI. 

All airlines are going to offer passengers pre-booking of seats at the time of buying tickets itself for a charge. People will have to pay more for the front rows. While all the new charges listed above are optional, which can be avoided through proper planning, some airlines have also introduced new or higher charges like convenience and transaction cess which have to be paid at the time of booking tickets. 

Coupled with fares, which have gone up by 20-25% after Kingfisher declared itself bankrupt and steep new airport charges at Delhi, air travel is no more a low-cost affair.

 

» Read Complete News.....

(You need to login first to read complete news).
New User? Register for FREE!

» Back to Travel News

Advertisement