The IT departments of domestic airlines had a tough time today following fresh directives from aviation regulator DGCA to provide customer-friendly information on airfares.
A day after airlines uploaded different levels of fares on different sectors date-wise on their websites, DGCA asked them to provide this information in layman's language so that a flyer can understand what level of fare he or she would be charged for flying out on a particular day and time.
An airline official, requesting anonymity, said, "Our IT department, running the website, is working overtime to provide necessary information and making relevant changes in
them as and when it is being asked."
Similar was the story for some other carriers also. Official sources said the newly-established Tariff Analysis Unit in the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, monitoring route-wise, date-wise and fare category-wise tariff across the networks of all domestic airlines, had pointed out several deficiencies in the information provided.
The sources said the information regarding advance purchase fares, return fares and the several fare buckets were "not consumer-friendly" as lot of airline jargon was being used in these charts which may not be understood by the air traveller.
An airline site today showed 11 different fare levels for a particular day of March next year, while another showed nine levels. One site even carried a disclaimer that fare charts were subject to change without prior notice.
The sources said these issues have been noted by DGCA's tariff monitoring unit and fresh guidelines issued. The DGCA had last week directed all Indian carriers to show route-wise and date-wise airfares on their websites in order to ensure transparency in ticket pricing.
The Federation of Indian Airlines (FIA), an umbrella body of the airlines, has decided to furnish a copy of the tariff they would charge, route-wise, across their network, to DGCA in the beginning of each month and also provide the same information on their websites.
The FIA represents Air India, GoAir, IndiGo, Jet Airways, JetLite, Kingfisher Airlines, Paramount Airways and SpiceJet.
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