Aviation regulator DGCA has directed all Indian carriers to show route-wise and date-wise airfares on their websites by Wednesday evening and ensure transparency so that flyers do not feel cheated by high ticket prices.

A fresh directive was issued shortly after top officials of the Civil Aviation Ministry and the Directorate General of Civil Aviation met representatives of full-service carriers — AirIndia, Jet Airways and Kingfisher.

DGCA had met officials of the no-frill carriers IndiGo, Spicejet and GoAir, on Saturday after issuing a directive asking all carriers to explain the high fares they were charging.

In order to maintain transparency in tariff and enable predictability for customers, all scheduled domestic airlines have been directed to “upload the route wise tariff across its network in various fare categories commensurate with date of purchase on their respective websites, in addition to adhering to the directions issued on November 19”, the directive said on Monday.

All airlines have agreed to comply with the directive that has to be implemented “latest by 1700 hrs of December 8”, an official spokesperson said.

The directive implies that the airlines would have to not only provide details of route-wise fares but also detail them for each ‘fare bucket’.

Aircraft seats are grouped into different categories, each at a distinct price.

These categories are referred to as ‘fare buckets’. At the two meetings, all airlines were briefed about the provisions of Rule 135 of the Aircraft Rules, 1937, which deals with publishing of tariff established by them on their websites or in daily newspapers.

In view of the “sudden and inordinate surge” in airfares from 15^th November particularly on the metro routes, all airlines were directed to bring tariffs to a reasonable level, the spokesperson said.

Following this, the DGCA had issued a directive on 19^thNovember asking airlines to furnish a copy of established tariff route-wise across its network in various fare categories to the DGCA on every first day of the calendar month.

“The response of the airlines to the notice was not satisfactory and as the increase in tariff continued unabated, the DGCA commenced meetings with the CEOs of the established domestic airlines on December 4 and 6 in order to remedy the situation,” the spokesperson said.

Kingfisher Airlines promoter Vijay Mallya said airfares should not be capped by regulatory authorities.

“There is no case of capping airfare in a liberalised environment, be it at upper or lower band. It is a function of demand and supply,” he told reporters in New Delhi on Monday.

Mallya refuted the contention that airlines were overcharging the customers saying, “It is not exploitation by the airlines… Airlines are fighting for market share, so demand and supply has to be respected.”

While agreeing with the fresh directive issued on Monday, airline officials, requesting anonymity, said they have been providing fare details to customers on their websites.

Referring to Rule 135 of the Aircraft Rules, they said, “It only wants us to publish the fares. We have already been publishing our fares on the net, but not giving out competitive information like what our bucket-seat prices would be. Now that may have to be done.”

Many major carriers across the world file their bucket seat prices to the Washington-based Airlines Tariff Publishing Company, which then gives out the information to international booking and distribution systems like Amadeus, Sabre and Travelport, maintaining strict confidentiality.

If this information was shared on the web, it would have an adverse impact on competition and hence on the health of the airline industry, these officials said.

However, after the Ministry and DGCA cracked the whip on them for charging exorbitant fares in the non-peak season, overall airfares have come down by 20 to 25 percent.

Though the fares for tickets bought both at the last minute and in advance during November-December are yet to return to the average levels during the same period last year.

The fare range on Delhi-Mumbai sector now was Rs 5,000 to Rs 20,000 on economy class ticket, while that on Delhi-Chennai and Delhi-Kolkata it stood between Rs 5,000 and Rs 15,000, the officials said.

Two weeks ago, the lowest last-minute Delhi-Mumbai fare was about Rs 17,000, even though holiday travel season had not begun.

The lowest available fares at the same time last year was about Rs 3,000 for Delhi-Mumbai and Rs 4,000 for the Delhi- Chennai and Delhi-Kolkata sectors.

Asked whether these fares were at the same level as last year, DGCA officials said these were at least 20 percent higher than the same period in 2009, if not more.