Cap air ticket cancellation charge at 50% of base fare: Parliament Panel

A Parliamentary panel has asked the government to restrict the cancellation charges of air tickets to 50% of the base fare and favoured a complete refund of the tax and fuel surcharge collected from passengers.

The issue of high cancellation charges levied by private airlines was flagged by the Parliamentary Committee on Civil Aviation during a recent meeting with government officials with a suggestion to rationalise the same.

“On this issue, the Secretary responded that though the Ministry has no power to give any direction to private airlines, he would hold a meeting with all the Airlines to consider rationalizing the cancellation charges,” the Committee said in its reports submitted to Parliament recently.

The Committee, chaired by BJP Rajya Sabha member T G Venkatesh, said it was of the view that airlines should be persuaded to restrict the cancellation charges to not more than 50% of the base fare of the air ticket.

“The tax and fuel surcharge collected should be refunded to the passengers on cancellation of tickets,” it said adding that such rationalisation would be in the interest of passengers.

While the government does not interfere in the commercial practices of airlines, the Civil Aviation Requirements (CAR) make it mandatory for them to provide refunds within seven days of the cancellation of the ticket in case of bookings done using a credit card.

For cash transactions, the refund has to be immediate at the office from where the ticket was purchased and in case of travel agents or portals, the time fixed for returning the money is 30 days.

However, the CAR also makes it clear to the airlines that the cancellation charges should not be more than the base fare and the fuel surcharge.

It also directs the airline to refund any airport development fee or passenger service fee it had charged the passenger in case of cancellation/non-utilisation or no show.

The Committee also asked the government to frame guidelines to ensure basic facilities such as water, medicine, food, toilets in case of emergency landings or cancellation of flights by airlines.