DGCA asks passengers to check fares from airline website and not search engines

DGCA's word of caution comes days after IAS officer Sanjeev Gupta tweeted that the one way trip fare of a British Airways flight from Delhi to London scheduled for August 26 was priced at ₹3.95 lakh on Google travel.

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Tuesday issued a travel advisory to passengers flying to international destinations to check the fare from the official website of the concerned airline as the ticket prices shown on metasearch engines are often “exaggerated”. This comes a day after the DGCA asked airlines to ensure that the fares on metasearch engines are not higher than the ones displayed on the carriers' websites.

The Ministry of civil aviation took to Twitter on August 8 to refute claims of one way trip fare charging ₹4 lakh

“Passengers travelling to international destinations are requested to check the fare preferably from the website of the concerned Airline as the metasearch engines at times do not reflect the actual point to point fare and do make combinations of multiple Airlines and end up with an exaggerated figure,” DGCA tweeted on Tuesday.

“Fare of ₹3.95 lakh one way Delhi to London on Aug 26. No, it's not 1st class. It's economy on @British_Airways @airindiain @airvistara etc. also 1.2 to 2.3 lakh. College admission time! See minimum fare on @GoogleTravel in August. Have alerted Secretary @MoCA_GoI @JM_Scindia,” tweeted Gupta on August 7.

The Ministry of civil aviation took to Twitter on August 8 to refute claims of one way trip fare charging ₹4 lakh. “There are media reports claiming India-UK one-way economy class fares have touched Rs. 4 lakhs. These reports have no proven basis. The veracity of Sh Sanjeev Gupta’s claim has been thoroughly checked by the DGCA,” the ministry tweeted.

“The fares offered on the Delhi-London sector (Economy class) range from 1.03-1.21 lakhs for Indian carriers and 1.28-1.47 lakhs for UK carriers for travel during August 2021,” it further clarified.

The UK recently moved India, UAE, Qatar, and Bahrain from its ‘red’ to ‘amber list’, thereby facilitating travel for vaccinated travelers without the 10-day mandatory quarantine.