IndiGo Airlines’ massive cancellations and delays have caused a national crisis impacting thousands of travellers and throwing travel plans into chaos across multiple cities. A number of companies taking advantage of this disruption have increased their prices due to the influx of passengers being left stranded.

According to airport data accessed on Saturday several major hubs reported significant cancellations by IndiGo. Hyderabad Airport recorded 69 planned cancellations including 26 arrivals and 43 departures. At Delhi Airport operated by GMR 86 IndiGo flights were cancelled for the day comprising 37 departures and 49 arrivals. Ahmedabad Airport also reported disruptions with 35 departures and 24 arrivals listed under planned cancellations. At Kolkata Airport 73 arrivals and 102 departures were scheduled for the day of which 21 arrivals and 20 departures were cancelled. 

Following IndiGo Airlines’ recent string of cancellations and delays Praveen Khandelwal the Member of Parliament (MP) for Chandni Chowk has expressed his concerns regarding passengers’ rights profiteering as well as the airlines practices as reported by NavBharat Times Hindi.

In a letter sent to the Union Minister of Consumer Affairs Prahlad Joshi Khandelwal asked for urgent steps to protect passengers. He proposed implementing a system akin to the Maximum Retail Price (MRP) called a “Maximum Acceptable Fare (MAF)” to cap charges for airline tickets and hotel accommodations during emergencies. He stressed that passengers should not be exploited for profit.  Khandelwal stressed that passengers should not be viewed as ATM machines by the airlines.
 
The BJP MP’s appeal comes at a time when the government has already declared an upper limit on certain airline fare ranges between Rs 7500 and Rs 17500.
 


Khandelwal said there are limits for things such as soap so why would there not be limits on outrageous prices for many essential services like air transportation and emergency hotel rooms? He said this current type of pricing is a predatory type of Dynamic Pricing that is taking advantage of peoples vulnerability in order to create profits.


BJP MP from Chandni Chowk Praveen Khandelwal stated that during the IndiGo Crisis many affected business owners called on him to speak up and voice their concerns. Many of the business traders contacted him stating that there was a significant price increase in one-way tickets to cities such as Mumbai Hyderabad and Chennai which typically range from Rs 5000 to Rs 8000 had skyrocketed to Rs 70000–Rs 80000 during the crisis 5 to 10 times higher than usual.
 
He stated that this type of pricing doesnt reflect a normal price for a product or service in the market but is the result of opportunistic algorithm-driven pricing exploiting passengers’ vulnerability.

Similarly passengers at the Delhi airport are being charged hotel rates that can run as high as Rs 75000 per night with the rates for short stays being charged at hotel luxury prices.

Unfortunately MP Khandelwal stated that when airlines such as IndiGo are experiencing severe flight disruptions travellers should not be penalised; however hotels should not use these emergencies as an opportunity to profit from them.
 
The rapid response from Union Home Minister Amit Shah was commended by Khandelwal who also provided a number of key recommendations to the central government to resolve this issue. Khandelwal recommended that the central government should create a legal requirement for airlines and hotels to establish a Maximum Acceptable Fare (MAF) so that neither of these entities could charge more than a predetermined amount. Furthermore Khandelwal recommended that baseline prices should be established for every route and zone based on historical data and that a surge cap should also be created to limit fare increases during times of crisis.