Parliament Question: Monitoring of Air Fare Trends

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF CIVIL AVIATION LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. : 1934 ( TO BE ANSWERED ON THE 30th July 2026 ) MONITORING OF AIR FARE TRENDS 1934. SHRI SASIKANTH SENTHIL SHRI RAMASAHAYAM RAGHURAM REDDY Will the Minister of CIVIL AVIATION be pleased to state:- (a) whether air fares on certain domestic routes increase substantially during peak travel periods festivals, emergencies or other periods of high demand under dynamic pricing and if so, the details thereof; (b) whether the Government or the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) monitors route-wise air fare trends and fare bands charged by airlines and if so, the details thereof; (c) the mechanism in place for such monitoring and the number of complaints received regarding high or excessive air fares during each of the last three years; (d) whether any advisories, directions or consultations have been issued to airlines regarding fare rationalisation during periods of abnormal demand; and (e) if so, the details thereof along with the steps taken to protect passengers from unreasonable fare spikes while maintaining operational viability of airlines? ANSWER Minister of State in the Ministry of CIVIL AVIATION (Shri Murlidhar Mohol) (a): Airfare established by the airlines are dynamic in nature & fixed by the airlines keeping in mind the market, demand, seasonality, prevailing international scenarios and other market forces. The airline fare system runs in multiple levels (buckets or Reservation Booking Designators) which are in line with practice being followed globally. The airfare increases with increase in demand of seats as the lower fare buckets get sold out faster and move to higher fare buckets. The dynamic pricing framework adopted by airlines, at times enables passengers to get more affordable fares during peak travel periods or when bookings are made close to the date of departure, depending on prevailing market conditions.; ; (b & c): In order to ensure that airlines do not charge airfares outside the range declared by them, Tariff Monitoring Unit (TMU) has been set up in Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) which monitors airfares on selected 78 routes (72 domestic & 06 international) on random basis by using airline websites on monthly basis. The 72 domestic routes coversabout 27% of the domestic traffic. By doing so, the TMU plays a critical role in maintaining airfare levels within the boundaries of the airlines' prescribed tariffs. For timely redressal of concerns related to excessive airfares charged by domestic airlines, Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) has developed a dedicated "Air Fare" grievance module on the AirSewa platform since July, 2025. Appended below are the number of complaints received by DGCA: Year No. of complaints July-Dec, 2025 - 394 Jan-July(till date), 2026 - 315; ; (d & e): In a deregulated aviation market, government generally refrains from regulating airfares to maintain market competitiveness, however, it remains vigilant, and intervenes in exceptional circumstances in order to maintain pricing discipline in the market & prevent adoption of any opportunistic pricing practice by the airlines. Measures such as increase in flights, redistributing capacity across various sectors and imposing temporary fare caps, are adopted by Government during the Covid Pandemic, festivals like Mahakumb or other extraordinary instances like Pahalgam incident & the Indigo flight disruptions. ******