The Directorate General of Civil Aviation, or DGCA, has directed all airlines to "immediately withdraw" from a controversial scheme in which a flier gets to know the name of the carrier only after booking the ticket.

The country's apex regulator for civil aviation said in a circular on Wednesday that airlines are participating in a special fare scheme offered by travel portals, namely 'opaque fares', where neither the identity of the carrier nor the flight details are revealed till payment is through and ticketing done. "This is in violation of the Aircraft Rules, 1937," it said. 

"All airlines are therefore directed to immediately withdraw participation in any such scheme where the complete information about the carrier is not revealed up front," the DGCA said.

On March 24, a report in this newspaper described a scheme in which travel portals such asmakemytrip.com, yatra.com and goibibo were offering huge discounts on flights without revealing the name of the airline till payment was made.

"We have taken action based on ET's report. Basically, the fares that this scheme offered are unpublished and even went below the published levels. This went against our directives and are non-transparent. It amounts to cheating customers," DGCA chief EK Bharat Bhushan told ET.