India’s Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) issued an unprecedented directive on 6 December 2025 ordering every scheduled carrier to respect the dynamic fare-cap bands that the regulator had introduced on major trunk routes after the pandemic. The order comes at the height of a network-wide service crisis at IndiGo, the country’s largest airline, which has cancelled more than 2,100 flights since 1 December in its scramble to realign crew rosters with new Flight-Duty-Time-Limitation (FDTL) rules. MoCA said the caps will stay “until flight operations stabilise nationwide,” warning that non-compliance would trigger enforcement action under the Aircraft Act.
The caps—pegged to distance and load-factor thresholds—limit one-way economy fares, for example, on Delhi-Mumbai to ₹8,500 and Delhi-Bengaluru to ₹9,700 inclusive of taxes. Over the past week fares on some disrupted routes had spiked above ₹22,000, drawing public ire and a rebuke in Parliament. To ease pressure, Indian Railways is running 89 special trains on high-demand sectors such as Delhi–Mumbai and Bengaluru–Hyderabad, providing 63,000 extra berths through 10 December.
![India caps domestic airfares amid IndiGo meltdown, enforces strict compliance across airlines]()
For global-mobility managers the price cap offers near-term budget certainty: corporate-travel platforms reported average domestic-itinerary costs had jumped 45 % in the first week of December. Multinationals sourcing talent from Tier-II cities also avoid paying last-minute ‘distress’ fares to connect staff to international departures. Travel-management companies (TMCs) should, however, flag that the caps are temporary; once MoCA is satisfied that flight cancellations return to single-digit levels the ceiling could be lifted with 24-hours’ notice.
The episode underscores the fragility of India’s fast-growing aviation market: a single carrier holds 62 % share of domestic seats. MoCA is now consulting stakeholders on phased crew-rostering reforms and may mandate contingency capacity from rival airlines during peak seasons—mirroring EU-style public-service-obligations. Companies running assignment programmes into India should incorporate redundancy via alternative hubs such as Dubai, Doha and Singapore until the network fully recovers.
In practical terms, travellers booked on or after 6 December should check that their tickets reflect the revised capped amounts; discrepancies can be escalated to DGCA’s AirSewa portal. Organisations with large group bookings are advised to lock in fares quickly, as inventory in the lowest buckets is being rationed by revenue-management systems to comply with the caps.
The caps—pegged to distance and load-factor thresholds—limit one-way economy fares, for example, on Delhi-Mumbai to ₹8,500 and Delhi-Bengaluru to ₹9,700 inclusive of taxes. Over the past week fares on some disrupted routes had spiked above ₹22,000, drawing public ire and a rebuke in Parliament. To ease pressure, Indian Railways is running 89 special trains on high-demand sectors such as Delhi–Mumbai and Bengaluru–Hyderabad, providing 63,000 extra berths through 10 December.
For global-mobility managers the price cap offers near-term budget certainty: corporate-travel platforms reported average domestic-itinerary costs had jumped 45 % in the first week of December. Multinationals sourcing talent from Tier-II cities also avoid paying last-minute ‘distress’ fares to connect staff to international departures. Travel-management companies (TMCs) should, however, flag that the caps are temporary; once MoCA is satisfied that flight cancellations return to single-digit levels the ceiling could be lifted with 24-hours’ notice.
The episode underscores the fragility of India’s fast-growing aviation market: a single carrier holds 62 % share of domestic seats. MoCA is now consulting stakeholders on phased crew-rostering reforms and may mandate contingency capacity from rival airlines during peak seasons—mirroring EU-style public-service-obligations. Companies running assignment programmes into India should incorporate redundancy via alternative hubs such as Dubai, Doha and Singapore until the network fully recovers.
In practical terms, travellers booked on or after 6 December should check that their tickets reflect the revised capped amounts; discrepancies can be escalated to DGCA’s AirSewa portal. Organisations with large group bookings are advised to lock in fares quickly, as inventory in the lowest buckets is being rationed by revenue-management systems to comply with the caps.
