Domestic airlines on Wednesday proposed to make public a range of fares for every month, with four different distance bands in place—up to 750 km; 750 to 1,000 km; 1,000 to 1,400 km and above 1,400 km. If the airlines’ proposal is accepted, the distance band will remain in these four zones, while the range of fares will keep changing every month

In December 2010, the maximum economy fares on Delhi-Mumbai and Delhi-Chennai has been capped at Rs 17,000 and Rs 22,000 for low cost carriers (LCCs). For full service carriers, the maximum is Rs 25,000 and Rs 35,000, respectively. The average price is much lower if tickets are bought in advance and fares would reach their peak if purchased on the day of travel or just a day before.

Nasim Zaidi, Chief, Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) and also the Aviation Secretary, who cracked the whip on airlines as the DGCA chief last month when fares on some routes like Delhi-Mumbai shot up by 300 per cent due to massive demand supply crunch, also asked airlines to submit a route wise tariff range every month.

Zaidi said, “Airlines have filed their replies and the same are being examined.” After studying the proposals and fine tuning them and if needed to be made more consumer-friendly, the Ministry of Civil Aviation is likely to implement the new system ‘very soon’. The Ministry of Civil Aviation wants these ranges to be made public on the first of every month so that people planning air travel that month must know they are not being charged more than the maximum limit.