Hyderabad: Amid IndiGo’s massive flight cancellations for the past five days, ministry of civil aviation has introduced limits on maximum fare charges.

“It has come to the notice of the Central Government that disruptions in flight operations of one of the scheduled airlines have resulted in flight cancellations, leading to capacity constraints and unreasonable surge in the fares on number of sectors.” the ministry said in a statement.

Flights up to 500 km will have a maximum fare of Rs 7,500, flights between 500–1000 km have a cap of Rs 12,000, flights between 1000–1500 km are capped at Rs 15,000 while flights with a length of over 1500 km have been capped at a fare of Rs 18,000.

The fares mentioned above are exclusive of applicable user development fee, passenger service fee and taxes and are not applicable for Business class and to RCS UDAAN flights.

The ministry has also said that these limits are only applicable for travel until the fares stabilise and shall apply for all forms of bookings, regardless of whether the purchase is made directly through the airline’s official website or through various online travel agents’ platforms.

Airlines have been asked to maintain ticket availability across all fare buckets and to also consider adding more seats or flights on routes based on a surge in demand.

They have also been asked to avoid steep or unusual upward fare revisions on routes affected by cancellations.

Airlines have been asked to extend maximum possible support to affected passengers, including arranging alternate flight options where feasible.