‘Don’t travel by air’: SC on plea seeking cap on soaring airfares

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday refused to urgently hear a plea seeking a cap on soaring domestic airfares during the 2026 Diwali festive season, despite claims that ticket prices had climbed to nearly seven times their normal levels, Deccan Chronicle reported.

“Don’t travel by air,” the bench comprising Justices Vikram Nath, Sandeep Mehta and Aparesh Kumar Singh remarked while declining to urgently list the application seeking government intervention in airline pricing.

Advocate Abhinav, appearing for petitioner S Laxminarayanan, argued that air travel was an essential service and that excessive fare increases violated Article 14 of the Constitution.

The application was filed in an ongoing public interest litigation challenging algorithm-driven dynamic pricing and additional charges imposed by airlines. The main petition is scheduled for hearing on November 16.

Highlighting the extent of the increases, the petitioner cited a Delhi-Kolkata ticket that normally costs Rs 10,000-11,000 but had risen to Rs 78,694 for travel on November 6. Other major routes, including Bengaluru-Delhi and Mumbai-Delhi, had also recorded steep increases.

The plea sought temporary fare ceilings for the current festive season and the year-end travel period, as well as a permanent mechanism to regulate prices during peak seasons. It also demanded restoration of the free checked baggage allowance in economy class from 15 kg to 25 kg.

The development comes days after the Centre notified the Bharatiya Vayuyan Niyam, 2026, empowering the government to intervene in airline fares under extraordinary circumstances. The rules will come into effect on January 1, 2027.