Indian Aviation regulator DGCA has issued a new advisory and also cautioned International air travellers to cross-check flight rates with airlines before making a booking. The regulator has asked airlines to ensure that the airfares on metasearch engine websites are not higher than the ones displayed on the carriers’ websites.
“Passengers travelling to international destinations are requested to check the fare preferably from the website of the concerned airline as the meta-search engines at times do not reflect the actual point to point fare and do make combinations of multiple airlines and end up with an exaggerated figure,” DGCA said in a tweet.
This is amidst reports of exaggerated airfares being charged for flights between India and the United Kingdom. The Ministry of Civil Aviation clarified on Sunday that an economy-class ticket on the Delhi-London flight has been available for between ₹1.03 lakh and ₹1.47 lakh during August.
Air India said the upward pricing wass driven by passengers who were allowed to rebook tickets owing to entry requirements and mandatory institutional quarantine in the UK. It said due to this only upper bucket economy & business class seats are available now due to which airfares show a massive uptick on ticket booking websites.
Currently, limited special international passenger flights have been operating since July 2020 under the air bubble arrangements formed with 28 countries, including the UK.
