Overview
- Civil Aviation Minister K. Ram Mohan Naidu told Parliament the Centre can cap fares in extraordinary circumstances under the Aircraft Act but will not impose blanket, year‑long controls in a deregulated market.
- The temporary caps set maximum economy fares at Rs 7,500 (up to 500 km), Rs 12,000 (500–1,000 km), Rs 15,000 (1,000–1,500 km) and Rs 18,000 (over 1,500 km), excluding UDF, PSF and taxes, and excluding Business Class and UDAN flights.
- The DGCA has created a Tariff Monitoring Unit to track prices against declared tariff sheets and to enforce the temporary limits during the disruption.
- IndiGo cancelled more than 2,000 flights in early December after crew rostering changes tied to new flight‑duty norms, triggering capacity shortages and sharp fare spikes.
- Looking beyond the crisis, Naidu said aircraft availability is the key bottleneck with roughly 1,700 pending orders, and outlined a push for Made‑in‑India planes with HAL engaging Sukhoi’s SJ‑100 and talks underway with Embraer.