Airfare caps should be in force till duopoly in airline sector remains: Chidambaram

New Delhi, Dec 7 (PTI) After the government introduced airfare caps in the wake of IndiGo flight disruptions, Congress leader P Chidambaram on Sunday said the Ministry of Civil Aviation has finally woken up and demanded that such price containment should remain in force till a duopoly in the airline sector exists.

The disruptions in IndiGo's operations resulted in hundreds of flight cancellations and delays in the last few days, causing hardships to thousands of passengers across the country.

In a post on X, the former finance minister said, "I am glad that the Ministry of Civil Aviation has woken up at last and capped the Economy Class fares".

"As long the duopoly in the airline sector remains, caps on Economy Class fares must remain in force "Absent robust competition, the only way to protect public interest is price containment. The overwhelming majority of the passengers must be protected (sic)," Chidambaram said.

He earlier said that the meltdown of Indigo operations and the chaos in airports throughout the country point to a massive failure of the Management of Indigo, the Ministry of Civil Aviation, DGCA and the whole government.

Noting that the new pilot duty time rules were notified in January 2024, Chidambaram said, "Yet, over the past 23 months, the government failed to guide the airline to adapt its operations to the new Rules. The MoCA and DGCA are squarely responsible." "When the crisis started and escalated, the government was clueless and helpless, and eventually capitulated," the Congress leader alleged.

The ministry on Friday suspended implementation of new flight duty time limitation (FDTL) rules following the crisis.

In the two-page order on capping the airfares, the ministry said on Saturday that disruptions in flight operations of one of the scheduled airlines has resulted in flight cancellations, leading to capacity constraints and an unreasonable surge in the fares on a number of sectors.

The airline operated more flights on Saturday at around 1,500, against about 800 cancellations.

IndiGo is operating 1,650 flights of its 2,300 daily domestic and international flights on Sunday, and 650 remain cancelled for the day, amid the airline's operations gradually stabilising after massive disruptions in the last five days, the airline said. PTI SKC RT