Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Dec 6: As airfares kept skyrocketing following the flurry of cancellation and inordinate delay in flights operated by the private carrier IndiGo, the Centre on Saturday stepped in to impose price cap on ticketing in flights to protect the hapless passengers from being exploited by some airlines taking advantage of the situation.
The government has also directed IndiGo to clear all refunds of the cancelled flights to the passengers by 8 PM on December 7 and not to levy any rescheduling charges from passengers whose travel plans were hit by cancellation of flights.
The Indian Railways has also stepped in launching special trains on many routes to clear the passenger glut at many airports across the country.
With IndiGo cancelling over 1,000 flights on Friday owing to crew shortage, airfares reached levels never seen before with a one-way one-stop economy-class SpiceJet Kolkata-Mumbai flight ticket for Saturday costing up to ₹90,000, and a similar ticket of Air India for Mumbai-Bhubaneswar going up to ₹84,485, according to the airlines’ websites. A similar trend was noted on many other high-traffic routes. “The situation is such that you can’t predict what are going to be the ticket prices when you book a flight. It may be two times, three times or even more than the normal fare range,” officials said.
The Civil Aviation Ministry on Saturday announced capping of airfares to control the surge in airline ticket prices following the massive delay and cancellation of all domestic flights of IndiGo.
In a statement the ministry informed that it took serious note of concerns regarding the unusually high airfares being charged by certain airlines during the ongoing disruption. “In order to protect passengers from any form of opportunistic pricing, the Ministry has invoked its regulatory powers to ensure fair and reasonable fares across all affected routes,” the statement said.
According to the price cap imposed, the government has imposed a ceiling of Rs 7,500 for travel up to 500 Kilometres, Rs 12,000 for up to 1,000 kms, Rs 15,000 for travel between 1,000 and 1,500 kms and Rs 18,000 for distances beyond 1,500 kms.
“These caps will remain in force until the situation fully stabilises,” the Ministry of Civil Aviation said. “The objective of this directive is to maintain pricing discipline in the market, prevent any exploitation of passengers in distress, and ensure that citizens who urgently need to travel — including senior citizens, students, and patients — are not subjected to financial hardship during this period,” the statement further added.
Last time the government-imposed fare caps was in May 2020 when a limited number of flights were allowed to resume following a two-month ban during lockdown measures. The caps were different price slabs based on flight distance.
An official directive has been issued to all airlines mandating strict adherence to the fare caps that have now been prescribed. These caps will remain in force until the situation fully stabilises. The objective of this directive is to maintain pricing discipline in the market, prevent any exploitation of passengers in distress, and ensure that citizens who urgently need to travel — including senior citizens, students, and patients — are not subjected to financial hardship during this period.
The Ministry will continue to closely monitor fare levels through real-time data and active coordination with airlines and online travel platforms. Any deviation from the prescribed norms will attract immediate corrective action in the larger public interest.
The ministry said it also directed IndiGo to clear all passenger refunds without delay. “The Ministry has mandated that the refund process for all cancelled or disrupted flights must be fully completed by 8:00 PM on Sunday, 7 December 2025. Airlines have also been instructed not to levy any rescheduling charges for passengers whose travel plans were affected by cancellations,” the statement said.
Earlier in the day, hundreds of domestic flights of IndiGo were cancelled as the massive crisis surrounding the airline entered the fifth day. Operating 2,300 flights daily with a fleet of over 400 aircraft, IndiGo has seen its punctuality plummeting down with the operational disruptions that are expected to continue for many more days. The current crisis was primarily caused by a shortage of pilots that was not anticipated due to planning deficiencies, and the authorities are keeping a close watch on the situation.
On Friday night, IndiGo issued an apology statement on the social media platform X. “We do deeply apologise and understand how difficult the past few days have been for many of you. While this will not get resolved overnight, we assure you that we will do everything in our capacity to help you in the meantime and to bring our operations back to normal at the earliest,” IndiGo said.
The airline said the refunds for all cancelled flights would be processed automatically to the fliers’ original mode of payment. Also on Friday, the airline’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) said the “full normalisation of domestic flight operations was expected between December 10 and 15, though IndiGo cautions that recovery will take time due to the scale of operations.”
The Civil Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu said on Friday that IndiGo’s operational meltdown was “on the verge of getting resolved.” Mr Naidu said, “I can say it is on the verge of getting resolved. The major congestion has happened in the metro airports… and we are seeing all the metro airports, most of them – Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai – they have been cleared right now of all the backlog of passengers that was there for the past two days.
“The other ones will also be finished by tonight. And Indigo is going to start operations with limited capacity again from tomorrow. As the operations settle down, they are going to increase the capacity. But in terms of passengers not facing a problem, you will see that happening from tomorrow. And the full capacity of IndiGo operations getting back will probably take a couple more days,” he assured.
IndiGo cancelled over 400 flights by evening on Saturday, a day after managing to temporarily secure major relaxations in the second phase of the court-mandated new flight duty and rest period norms for the cockpit crew, but its overall cancellation of the day was expected to be less than that of nearly 1,200 flights on Friday.