Govt likely to come down heavily on airlines' for 'high' cancellation fees

The government is planning to speak with the airline authorities regarding imposing of the high ticket cancellation fee and also ask them to cut the fee to a reasonable amount.

Currently, most of the airlines charge a hefty fee of Rs 3000 on cancellation of tickets. Also, the airlines in recent past have hiked several other charges that including the fee for baggage in excess of 15kg on domestic flights.

"These cancellation charges need to be brought back into balance," Sinha told TOI, adding that he has ordered a review of the high amount being charged by airlines.

"We believe cancellation charges are on the high side and onerous for passengers. The Rs 3,000 fee is in many cases more than the price of the ticket itself. Our UDAN (subsidized regional flying) scheme has capped fares at Rs 2,500 per hour of flying. These cancellation charges need to be brought back into balance," Aviation Minister Jayant Sinha told TOI.

In the past one year, the price of cancelling flight tickets nearly doubled, posing huge losses to the passengers.

Last year in January, the cost of cancelling a SpiceJet ticket in was only Rs 1,800 for domestic and Rs.2,349 for international travel. After Indigo announced its hike, SpiceJet too hiked the fee to Rs 2,250 on domestic routes and to Rs 2,500 on international routes.

Vistara currently levies a charge of Rs 4,000 for cancelling tickets in the category of 'Super Saver', Rs 3,600 for 'saver' tickets while Rs 2,400 for tickets booked under the 'Flexi' category.

OneIndia News