Domestic airfares can’t be capped: CCI chief

Ashok Chawla says that fixing a ceiling goes against the philosophy of competition.

Stakeholders, including parliamentarians, have been demanding curbs on highly fluctuating domestic airfares, especially for travel at short notice.

Amid demands for a mechanism to check domestic airfares, Ashok Chawla, Chairman of the Competition Commission of India (CCI), has said that capping of fares will violate competition norms.

“Capping [of airfares] is antithetical to the policy of deregulation as well as to the whole philosophy of competition and what market determines,” Mr. Chawla in an interview to the news agency PTI. The fair trade regulator is investigating if carriers have formed a cartel to fix airfares. The CCI had looked into it thrice previously, but did not find any evidence of violation of fair trade norms.

Stakeholders, including parliamentarians, have been demanding curbs on highly fluctuating domestic airfares, especially for travel at short notice.

Mr. Chawla, however, said capping of pricing was not in sync with the philosophy of deregulation.

“Deregulation is where you allow market forces to operate and if you allow market forces to operate and you seek stifling of the market forces saying you will not allow this beyond a level, then actually you are not allowing the full play of market forces,” he said.