Govt should consider increasing upper caps on domestic airfares amid rising fuel prices: IndiGo CEO

New Delhi The Ministry of Civil Aviation should consider increasing the upper limits on domestic air

The Ministry of Civil Aviation should consider increasing the upper limits on domestic airfares as the rising fuel prices has become a “real problem”, IndiGo CEO Ronojoy Dutta has said.

Moreover, India’s largest airline IndiGo is likely to introduce a business class in certain international flights as it is looking to expand to regions like Europe, Africa and Southeast Asia, he said in an interview to PTI.

The Ministry had imposed lower and upper limits on domestic airfares based on flight duration when services were resumed on May 25, 2020, after a two-month lockdown due to the pandemic. For example, airlines currently cannot charge a passenger less than ₹2,900 (excluding GST) and more than ₹8,800 (excluding GST) on flights with duration of less than 40 minutes.

The lower caps were imposed to help the airlines that have been struggling financially due to travel restrictions. The upper caps were imposed so that passengers are not charged huge amounts when the demand for seats is high. The fuel prices have been rising since the Russia-Ukraine war began on February 24.

Mr. Dutta said the two-class configuration is being considered for A321XLR planes, which will be delivered to IndiGo by Airbus at the end of 2024 and will operate in international sectors.

IndiGo currently has a fleet of 275 aircraft and all of them are narrow-body planes such as A320neos and A321neos with just economy class seats.

Mr. Dutta also said that adding wide-body aircraft to IndiGo’s fleet is “just a matter of time” once Indian airports develop themselves into hubs, where the management of time slots for arrivals and departures of flights is much better and the time taken to transfer a passenger from an arriving flight at one terminal to a connecting flight on another terminal is extremely less.