Fare and square: GoAir offers discount on tickets, lowest at Rs 999

NEW DELHI: In a fresh round of fare cut, budget carrier GoAir rolled out a limited-period low fares scheme, offering one-way ticket prices as low as Rs 999 with a more than four months validity period for travel across its network.

The bookings for the three-day offer starts from Saturday. The fares, offered under the scheme are non-refundable and available only for a limited number of seats, the airline said in a statement today.

In case of a cancellation, only airport taxes will be refunded, the airline said adding the travel period booked during the offer period will remain valid from June 23 to October 31, 2015.

Aviation regulator DGCA had recently said it was keeping an eye on air fares to check any "exorbitant" and "predatory" pricing by the domestic carriers.

The DGCA had asked the airlines to provide the quantum (percentage) of the tickets sold by them at different pricing levels (highest and lowest fares buckets) for each sector over the next few months, sources close to the developments said.

The data collected would be anlaysed for any "noticeable" trend and consequent action, they said.

"Airlines have been told by the DGCA to furnish the data (on the highest and lowest fare buckets) in each sector. We will see (monitor) the data for 2-3 months and then we what best can be done," a source said.

However, various flash sales offers which were announced by airlines from time to time, have been kept out of this monitoring process, they said.

The government has time and again maintained that the fares are always market driven and it cannot regulate them.

However, late last year, the civil aviation ministry had circulated an internal note, suggesting for a minimum and maximum threshold for the economy class fares.

Under the existing regulation, airfares are not regulated by the government and airlines are free to fix reasonable charges/fee subject to compliance with Aircraft Rules 1937, Minister of State for Civil Aviation Mahesh Sharma had recently said.

The note said "Airlines have been offering huge discounts due to intense competition. If the situation is not contained, some airlines may face closure in the near future.

"Therefore, steps may be taken to fix minimum airfare to be charged by each airline."

"There is a need to cap maximum economy class airfare at a reasonable price of about Rs 20,000 beyond which airline should not be allowed to charge, exploiting passengers' urgency for travel due to various reasons," the note had said.