DGCA advises passengers travelling to international destinations to check fare on airlines official website

Mukesh Ranjan

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, August 10

In view of the complaints it received on the high prices being charged for flights to London from India this college admission season in the UK, civil aviation regulator DGCA has advised passengers travelling to international destinations “to check the fare from the airlines website concerned, as meta search engines at times do not reflect actual fare and end up with an exaggerated figure”.

Earlier, the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) had also directed the airlines to ensure that the airfares on meta search engine websites are not higher than the ones displayed on the carriers’ websites, officials in the regulatory body said.

Various meta search engine websites such as Google and Skyscanner operate in India.

On Saturday, Sanjeev Gupta, secretary, Inter-State Council Secretariat, Union Home Ministry, had complained on Twitter that an economy-class ticket on British Airways’ Delhi-London flight for August 26 was priced Rs 3.95 lakh.

However, the Ministry of Civil Aviation clarified on Sunday that an economy-class ticket on Delhi-London flight has been available for between Rs 1.03 lakh and Rs 1.47 lakh during August.

The officials in the DGCA said on Monday that the ticket prices shown on meta search engines are at times higher than what are being shown on the airlines’ websites and this is creating confusion.

Therefore, the regulator has asked the carriers to ensure that meta search engines do not show airfares higher than what is being shown on their websites.

While there have been lower and upper limits on all domestic airfares in India since May 25 last year, no such limits have been imposed on international airfares.

Scheduled international passenger flights have been suspended in India since March 23 last year amid the Covid pandemic.

However, limited special international passenger flights have been operating since July 2020 under the air bubble arrangements formed with 28 countries, including the UK.