Delhi-Mumbai One Way Air Ticket to Cost As High As Rs 10,000; Flights to Resume from May 25

The coronavirus pandemic has turned the Indian aviation industry upside down as no scheduled commercial flight has operated in last 60 days now. However, with government announcing resumption of flight services from May 25, airlines are gearing up to restart bookings once again.

While the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security earlier proposed airlines shouldn't be allowed to sell the middle seats to adhere social distancing, Civil Aviation Minister has denied taking any such decision as it will both commercially unviable and not feasible to implement.

Minister Puri, however, announced the flight resumption will take place with limited capacity utilization of the summer schedule of the airlines. This essentially means only one-third of the total flights will allowed as against the air carriers' actual schedule.

This will result in cost stress on airlines, which, airlines can levy from passengers. In order to control the pricing, govt has capped the minimum and maximum price that airlines can charge from flyers, basis flight duration.

The pricing has been decided basis the flight duration, which is divided into 7 sections. The pricing is applicable from May 25 to August 24, however the number of flights can be increased eventually given the response from flyers.

Here's the minimum and maximum flight prices as decided by the govt:

Less than 40 min: Minimum Rs 2000 and Maximum Rs 6000

40-60 min: Minimum Rs 2500 and Maximum Rs 7500

60-90 min: Minimum Rs 3000 and Maximum Rs 9000

90-120 min: Minimum Rs 3500 and Maximum Rs 10000

120-150 min: Minimum Rs 4500 and Maximum Rs 13000

150-180 min: Minimum Rs 5500 and Maximum Rs 15700

180-210 min: Minimum Rs 6500 and Maximum Rs 18600

These prices are for economy class and exclusive of UDF, PSF and GST. Govt has also instructed the airlines to book at least 40 percent ticket under the mean average price of selected category.

On the busiest route like Delhi-Mumbai sector, pricing will be capped from Rs 3,500 to Rs 10,000. This pricing will be applicable from May 25 to August 24. To check that airlines are not selling tickets at higher price, 40 percent of the tickets will be sold below the mean average of Rs 3,500- Rs 10,000 price capping.