Heena Sharma Blog

To ensure affordable air ticket fares for passengers and at the same time maintain financial viability for airlines in the times of the coronavirus pandemic , the government has capped air fares for three months. This is the first time since fares were deregulated in 1994 that a government has decided to interfere with pricing of air tickets. While announcing the resumption of air transport from March 25, Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said there would be fare caps and floor prices based on flight duration. How are the flight fares going to be fixed? The flight routes have been divided into seven bands based on the flight duration. The first band, which would have its specific lower and upper limits of air fare, will consist of flights that are of less than 40 minutes. Second, third, fourth and fifth bands of upper limits would be of flights with durations of 40-60 minutes, 60-90 minutes, 90-120 minutes and 120-150 minutes, respectively. Read More

The Civil Aviation Ministry on Thursday said the passengers who had booked flight tickets during the first phase of lockdown for travel up to May 3 must get a full refund from the airlines without any cancellation charges if they ask for it. Many have been complaining on social media as airlines have decided not to give refunds in cash for cancelled flights and are instead issuing credit for future travel. Zoom not a safe platform, says MHA advisory The Ministry of Home Affairs said in an advisory that video conferencing software Zoom is not a safe platform, and is not for use by government offices or officials. Earlier, Zoom CEO Eric Yuan had apologised for the company failing to fully implement its usual geo-fencing best practices, while assuring customers that there was no impact on Zoom for Government Cloud, a separate cloud service for government customers. Read More