Airline companies drop flat Rs 3,000 cancellation fee after DGCA raises concern

Cancellation of domestic air tickets will no longer be a flat Rs 3,000. Indian airlines said that their cancellation charges will be Rs 3,000 or base fare plus fuel surcharge per passenger, whichever is lower. This will come as a relief to the customers.

The decision came after the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) asked the airlines to provide data on cancellation charges. According to the rules, the cancellation charges should not exceed the base fare and fuel surcharge, the Times of India reported.

Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha earlier raised concern over the flat Rs 3,000 domestic cancellation fee being extremely high.

"We believe cancellation charges are on the high side and onerous for passengers," said Sinha.

"The Rs 3,000 fee is in many cases more than the price of the ticket itself," added Sinha.

Most of the airlines earlier listed a flat cancellation fee of Rs 3,000 in their websites, however after new rule was rolled out, this policy is now changed.

The new rule will be a relief of those customers who buy cheap air tickets by booking them well in advance but end up losing a huge sum of money if they decide to cancel the tickets and are unable to travel.

Earlier, reports suggested that the price of cancelling air tickets had almost doubled in the past one year. Many travellers had complained on the issue.

Further, if an air ticket was bought from an online portal then the customer had to pay additional cancellation fees to the portal. This would often leave travellers with very little refund or no refund at all.

The government is also working on a 'passenger bill of rights,' in an attempt to guide flyers on their rights and duties.