Click to play videoNew Delhi: Domestic airlines have only techincally complied with DGCA's directive to declare route wise fares. The data available on the airlines' websites can only be deciphered by experts.
Airlines have complied with the word of the DGCA order but not with the spirit of the directive. All domestic carriers have, as per the DGCA directive, put up route-wise fares on their websites.
But a closer look shows that these tariff tables appear in a complicated, non-user friendly language.
While the routes and distances columns are coherent, the data in the following columns on airfares does not make sense to the common man. It uses code that only aviation executives can decipher.
The Kingfisher Airlines website is worse. Even the routes on the table are in code. While this could be cracked with some scrutiny, nothing else on the table makes any sense. Indigo and SpiceJet tables also offer no simplicity.
Airlines seem to have forgotten that the DGCA directive they agreed to mentioned a user-friendly format for the tariffs. There is absolutely no way a normal passenger will be able to find out just how much he will have to shell out to travel on his route of choice.
The purpose of publishing fares was to ensure transparency, so flyers do not feel cheated by high ticket prices. The exercise has fallen on its face.
The aviation ministry, meanwhile, says it will press upon airlines to make the data more passenger-friendly. But airlines may not get away with just publishing fares in a given format.
The first meeting of the Aviation Economic Advisory Council comprising consumer forums and trade bodies, which is scheduled for Friday, may see the ministry pressing airlines to reduce fares.
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