Indian court protects passengers from paying airlines’ booking fees

In a relief to passengers, the Supreme Court on Wednesday restrained the Federation of Indian Airlines from levying a transaction fee, in any form or in any name, on them while booking tickets.

A Bench of Justices D.K. Jain and Madan B. Lokur gave the ruling came on an appeal against a Delhi High Court order that rejected the plea of a petitioner challenging the levy. It also directed the Directorate-General of Civil Aviation to examine the tariff structure of the airlines in view of the wide range of their base prices. The base price was in several bands, ranging in some cases from Rs.1,120 to 36,566.