Domestic air fares not likely to go down soon: DGCA
20 Jul 2012
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) today said domestic airfares would likely not go down to the 2011 levels any time soon.
However, it added, the fares might soften with declining demand.
According to the aviation regulator, higher operational cost and airport charges were responsible for the higher fares, although it insisted these were still within the prescribed band.
The airfares this year had seen a rise of over 50 per cent with the cheapest one-way fare on the Mumbai-Delhi route till about last week, close to Rs8,000. In 2011, the same ticket would have ranged around Rs5,000.
Also a one-way ticket on the Chennai-Hyderabad sector now cost around Rs10,000, a steep hike over Rs5,600 of last year.
Meanwhile, according to Bharat Bhushan, who was dismissed abruptly from is position as DGCA chief, a crucial document written by him on Kingfisher Airlines appeared to have gone missing from records.
