DGCA seeks explanation from airlines on high cancellation fees

Taking a serious note of domestic airlines increasing ticket cancellation fees by a significant amount, aviation regulator DGCA has sought an "explanation" from these carriers on the rationale for such a steep hike.
Last week, budget carrier IndiGo had done away with the slab system for charging ticket cancellation fee and made it uniform at Rs 2,250. National carrier Air India too had in February effected a massive hike of Rs 500 for cancelling its flight tickets, which now stands at Rs 2,000 per ticket.
"The DGCA has written to all the airlines across board, asking them to explain the reason for increasing ticket cancellation fee, which in some cases now is almost equivalent to the airfares charged for a short haul journey," a source said.

The airlines have been given time till Friday to respond, according to the source.
Fee for tickets cancelled up to two hours before the scheduled departure of the flight will be Rs 2,250, IndiGo had informed its passengers, saying that the hike was effective from April 1.
A passenger will not get any refund for the bookings cancelled 0-2 hours before scheduled departure, it had said.

IndiGo had last time revised these charges in February, under which it was charging Rs 1,900 for tickets cancelled more than seven days before scheduled departure and Rs 2,250 for tickets cancelled two hours to seven days before scheduled departure of the flight.

Early this year, another budget airline SpiceJet had also raised its ticket cancellation charges to Rs 1,899 from Rs 1,800 earlier.
Among all the domestic airlines, budget carrier AirAsia India has so far the lowest ticket cancellation charges at Rs 1,502.