Govt suspends directive on flight seat selection fee

New Delhi: The government has put on hold a directive requiring all Indian airlines to make at least 60% of seats on every flight free of selection charges.

The direction, announced in March, was in response to increasing complaints from travellers over difficulty in getting free seats, and family members having to pay for seats to ensure they are seated together.

The move, however, faced severe opposition from carriers. The Federation of Indian Airlines had said such a direction would hurt a key mode of earning ancillary revenue for airlines, in turn forcing them to raise base ticket prices, undermining the very passenger welfare the policy intends to protect.


"The matter has been reviewed in light of representation received from airlines highlighting operational and commercial implications including potential impact on fare structure and consistency with deregulated tariff regime," Kumar Saurabh Raj, an official at the Ministry of Civil Aviation, wrote in a direction to sector regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).

There was also a question on the legality of the move.

Under the rules of deregulation of airfares, airlines are allowed to charge separately for items like preferential seats, bags and meals. They are free to fix the charges. The DGCA can only intervene if airlines are found to violate principles of transparency and discrimination.