Air fares to be capped, private carriers to be a part of Vande Bharat mission
Union Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Thursday addressed a presser on air travel guidelines as the aviation industry gears up for resuming the domestic flight operations.
The highlights of the presser were the air travel fare which will have minimum-maximum limit. Union minister also talked about the possibilities of complete services of flights, social distancing norms for passengers, and cabin-crew safety.
The aviation minister also mentioned about the Vande Bharat Mission that was undertaken by the ministry to bring back stranded Indians in various countries who were seeking to return amid coronavirus lockdown across nations that led to temporarily suspension of flight operations in India.
The key pointers of the presser are:
- The union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said that during the period of COVID-19 pandemic the ministry will prescribe lower and upper limit on fares and airlines will have to adhere to it. The ministry has already set a minimum and a maximum fare.
- In the case of Delhi, Mumbai the minimum fare would be Rs 3,500 for a journey between 90-120 minutes, maximum fare would be Rs 10,000. This will be implemented and operative for 3 months – till one minute to midnight on 24th August, the minister said.
- 40 per cent of seats have to be sold at a fare less than the midpoint of the band. For example, midpoint of Rs 3500 & Rs 10,000 is Rs 6,700. So 40 per cent of the seats have to be sold at a price less than Rs 6,700. The Civil Aviation Secretary informed that by keeping the midpoint for 40 per cent seats the ministry is ensuring that fares don’t go out of control,
All routes within the country will fall under 7 slots, Aviation Ministry said.
The Civil Aviation ministry has classified the flight routes into 7 parts.
1) Flight time less than 40 minutes.
2) 40 – 60 minutes.
3) 60 – 90 minutes.
4) 90 – 120 minutes.
5) 120 – 150 minutes.
6) 150 – 180 minutes.
7) 180 – 210 minutes.
- For operation from Metro to Metro cities 1/3rd capacity of approved summer schedule 2020, which is more than 33.33 per cent and for operation from Metro to Non-metro cities & vice-versa, where weekly departures are greater than 100, 1/3rd capacity of approved summer schedule 2020.
- If a passenger does not have Aarogya Setu App downloaded on the phone A self-declaration should be filled. In such a case passenger will not be barred from flying. Passenger with red status on Aarogya Setu App will not be allowed to travel.
- On social distancing the minister said that it has been decided that there will not be any norm to keep the middle seat vacant. The ministry has decided not to keep the middle seat vacant in the flights.
- The Union Minister informed that in Vande Bharat Mission, our effort was not to bring back everyone who wanted to come back. The clear emphasis was on evacuating our citizens who were genuinely stranded abroad. He said, “We have brought back more than 20,000 of our citizens from various destinations. We are planning to further increase the number of people to be brought back. Besides Air India, private carriers too are joining in the effort.”
- The minister informed that once the COVID crisis is over the ministry will take India’s aviation market gradually to number one in the world.