Govt to examine ‘price rigging’ of airlines tickets
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Lok Sabha Speaker calls for probe in high airlines ticket prices
By Our Special Correspondent
New Delhi, July 25: The Centre will examine the allegations of “price rigging” in airlines tickets. The Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla suggested the government to examine the allegations of price manipulations of airlines tickets.
“There are a number of claims of price manipulations of airlines tickets. The expenses are borne by the parliament. The government should look into the issue raised by the members,” Birla told Union Minister for civil aviation K. Rammohan Naidu.
The Lok Sabha MP of the DMK, Dayanidhi Maran, alleged that there were price manipulations of the tickets of the airlines. “Whenever I book online tickets, mostly of Vistara, I see the quoted price, sometimes of ₹33000, shooting up at the time of payments, going up to ₹93,000. This happens on a regular basis,” added Maran.
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The DMK MP alleged that the “TCS runs the booking software and enjoys the monopoly”.
Earlier, the Congress MP from Kerala, Shafi Parambil, raised the issue of “exorbitantly high airlines ticket prices” from the Middle East. “The NRI community is facing the brunt of exorbitant airlines ticket prices. The ticket prices go as high as ₹93,000 per person for one-way travel,” said Parambil.
The Congress MP said that “it’s financially bleeding when a family travels to Kerala in times of deaths in families”. He demanded a probe into the cases of “ticket price rigging”.
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The MPs raised the issue of the alleged airlines ticket price manipulations during the Question Hour. Parambil stated that the NRI community sends remittances to the country, while they are given a raw deal when they wish to travel to India.
“The Ministry has an airlines ticket price monitoring committee. They keep a check on the ticket prices of the airlines. The government will look into the complaints of the MPs,” said Naidu.
The Lok Sabha Speaker also empathised with the complaints of the MPs. The members of parliament are entitled to travel first class in the airlines of their choices. Expenses are borne by parliament, said Birla.
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