Mangalore/new Delhi,May 1 : Passengers for those seeking preferential seats and other add-ons over the basic minimum services provided by an airline, Air-fare may get costlier.
It was reported that on Monday government has decided to unbundle some services and also to allow airlines to charge fees for the each services rendered by them separately.
As per an official statement, services for which airline can charge passengers separately are meals,snacks,drinks other than water, check-in baggage, use of airline lounges, carriage of sports equipment and musical instruments and valuable baggage.
No-frill carriers can charge for meals and drinks whereas regular full service airlines give meal free with travel.
As was decided by Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh, based on the decision, now airlines can offer low base fare for price sensitive travelers and at the same time airlines can ask the travelers to choose the paid services provided by the airlines.
The decision will allow the passengers to benefit from lower base fares and to customize the product to better suit their requirements and budget while allowing airlines to develop more sustainable operations in an environment of wafer-thin margins, the statement by Civil Aviation Ministry said,
This move will give leverage to India’s loss making airlines to some extent to recover from rising operational cost.
According to expert, India is going to become one of the world’s fastest growing aviation market in the next few years and in the past six years the economy of the airline sector has mustered almost double the figure but rising aviation fuel charges has dented the airlines profit in the past few years and is one of the biggest obstacles in the sector even to recover the operational costs, it says.
Aviation ministry also directed all the airlines to submit details of the services for which airlines intends to charge with aviation regulator Directorate General of civil Aviation, which reserve the right to intervene and stop charging if regulatory principles are violated by airlines.
The customers are given free hand to choose the facilities they want to avail and pay for the same, it says.
It said globally scheduled airlines are permitted to unbundle services and levy charges for each of them.
