The Union Ministry of Civil Aviation has notified a new set of rules that lets the Centre step into airline pricing when it judges a situation to be extraordinary and action to be in the public interest, a power that arrives amid concern over high airfares.
The Bharatiya Vayuyan Niyam, 2026, notified by the ministry, empowers the government to issue directions to carriers on fares. Any such instruction has to be proportionate to the circumstances and can remain in force only for the period it specifies. The notification lands amid concern over high airfares, with crude oil and aviation turbine fuel (ATF) prices elevated.
Rule 192 requires airlines running scheduled air services to fix fares after weighing factors including the cost of operations, and to file tariff details with the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, which will monitor the tariffs they set. The rule provides for written directions where the government is of the view that an extraordinary situation has arisen and that intervention is needed in the public interest.
The notification tightens transparency requirements around ticket pricing. Carriers must make fares public on their websites and other digital platforms so passengers can see what they are being charged, display the total amount payable during the booking process and again on the ticket, and give a separate breakdown covering the base fare, the taxes levied, fees, what a cancellation costs, refund conditions and any other charge that applies. The rules also draw a line between taxes that go to the government and fees that airlines collect for services or facilities offered to passengers.
The older Aircraft Rules of 1937, at Rule 135(4), let the DGCA direct airlines when it spotted predatory or excessive pricing, or oligopolistic behaviour, in the sector. Rule 192 keeps the monitoring provision but does not specifically list those practices as grounds for government intervention, even as the new framework gives the Centre powers to direct fares in extraordinary circumstances, subject to the conditions set out in the rules.
India freed fare fixation in 1994, leaving carriers to price tickets on market conditions. The ministry has maintained that carriers price seats on the basis of demand, running costs and how far ahead a booking is made, with several fare bands open to travellers. The new rules keep that commercial discretion, but place it beside a published tariff, a tariff sheet filed with the regulator, and the possibility of a time-bound direction from the Centre.
(With inputs from media reports)