Domestic flight tickets price: The civil aviation ministry has hiked the maximum and minimum limit on domestic flight ticket by 12.5 percent, officials aware of the matter said.
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Air travel within the country will cost you more from today (Friday, August 13) as the aviation ministry on Thursday night increased minimum and maximum domestic airfares or domestic flight ticket chargeable by airlines by 12.5%. The Centre also allowed airlines to operate 7.5% more domestic flights, raising the capacity to 72.5% of pre-Covid level.
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Worth mentioning here is that airlines have been operating at 65% of their pre-Covid domestic flights capacity since July 5. Between June 1 and July 5, airlines were allowed to operate at 50% of the pre-Covid capacity. 

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The Civil Aviation Ministry in order on Thursday increased the lower limit for flights under 40 minutes of duration from ₹2,600 to ₹2,900 — an increase of 11.53%. It has also increased the upper cap for flights under 40 minutes of duration was increased by 12.82 percent to ₹8,800.

The government first imposed the lower and upper limits on 25 May last year after the resumption of flights post-two-month nationwide lockdown due to Covid-19

The lower caps were imposed to help the airlines that have been struggling financially due to coronavirus-related travel restrictions. The upper caps were imposed so that passengers are not charged huge amounts when the demand for seats is high.

With the latest hike, one-way minimum fare on the Delhi-Mumbai route will rise from Rs 4,700 to Rs 5,287 and the maximum, from Rs 13,000 to Rs 14,625 excluding taxes. The government has hiked domestic airfares for the fourth time this year including the latest one amid rising jet fuel prices, which account for nearly 40% of the operating cost of airlines. Also, due to the Covid situation, airlines are struggling to survive in the absence of any financial support from the government.

The domestic demand has been showing signs of revival since the end of June and early July and over the last two weeks, it has been hovering around 2-2.5 lakh daily passengers, indicating green shoots in air travel demand trajectory.
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“The government does not regulate airfares. However, during the pandemic the government prescribed fare bands for domestic airlines. These fare bands have been revised on three occasions to compensate the airlines for the increase in the cost of Aviation Turbine Fuel (ATF). Any further adjustment of fare band would depend upon the amount of increase in the cost of ATF,” Minister of State for Civil Aviation Gen VK Singh had said on July 22 in a written reply to Lok Sabha.