There have been complaints about sudden surge in air ticket prices during peak travel seasons
Pointing out serious violations from time to time by many airlines on practicing predatory prices Parliamentary standing committee has advised civil aviation ministry has pointed out some points. The Parliament panel tells the government to ensure airlines do not practice predatory pricing under the cloak of free market economy.
To have clear transparency, the Parliamentary panel has asked the Civil Aviation Ministry to cap the upper and lower levels of airfares, and ensure that predatory pricing mechanism is not adopted by the airlines under the cloak of free market economy.
“A perfect balance has to be maintained between the commercial interest of the private airlines and the interest of the passengers so as to enable the private airlines to grow and at the same time the interest of passengers should also be kept in mind, so that they are not fleeced in the garb of commercialisation,” the panel said.
It may be noted that from time to time there is a public outcry against predatory pricing- where a company deliberately sells its products at prices low enough to drive its competitors out of business. But this practice clearly should be acceptable, because even after its competitors go out of business, the mere threat of renewed competition will prevent the company from raising its prices to unreasonable levels.
Editor in Chief : Mewati SItaram
