The Centre on Monday said it would examine if airlines imposing fee for web check-in were violating rules. IndiGo and SpiceJet recently tweaked their web check-in policies to include a fee for air travellers opting for web check-in for any seat in an aircraft. Earlier, passengers would have had to pay extra only for certain preferred seats.
“The MoCA [Ministry of Civil Aviation] has noted that airlines are now charging for web check-in for all seats. We are reviewing these fees to see whether they fall within the unbundled pricing framework,” it tweeted.
IndiGo said in a statement, “The pricing is only for advance selection of seats. When the customer checks in at the airport, the seats would be assigned for free. That said, there is no guarantee that the seat of choice for the passenger would be available at the time of airport check-in.”
It added that there could still be some flights where seats would be available for free depending on market dynamics. Fare unbundling allows airlines to break-up the total fare and charge separately for services such as preferential seating, meal-on-board, check-in baggage and use of airline lounges. This helps airlines earn ancillary revenue.
IndiGo charges anywhere between ₹ 100 to ₹ 600 for seat selection. with the lowest amount levied for middle row seats at the rear end of the aircraft and the highest for seats with extra leg room such as the front row and emergency exit seats.
Airlines response
In response to a query from The Hindu , Vistara said it did not charge for advance seat selection or for web check-in. AirAsia India said it did not charge for automatic seat allocation during web check-in.
Jet Airways offers free web check-in between six hours to one hour prior to departure for domestic flights and 12 to two hours for international flights.
However, passengers wanting to web check-in earlier need to cough up more money.
GoAir and SpiceJet didn’t respond to specific queries e-mailed to them.
Severely hit
The move comes at a time when the airline industry has been severely hit due to the falling rupee and rise in the cost of aviation turbine fuel during the first two quarters of the current fiscal. In the latest September quarter, all the three listed carriers — IndiGo, SpiceJet and Jet Airways — were in the red.
Significantly, the railways tweeted: ”No need to pay extra charges for web-checkins. No long queues for checking in your luggage. Avoid unreasonable tariff and reduce your carbon footprint by travelling on the good old Indian Railways at affordable rates.”
