Apex air travellers’ association, Air Passengers Association of India (APAI) on Sunday questioned the frequent “special fare” offers by domestic carriers and termed them as “non-existent”, even as it urged the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) not to allow such schemes.

The association, in a communication to the DGCA, also sought to know as to what action the regulator intends to take against the carriers on the issue.

“We strongly believe that the DGCA must put an end to this practice of offering ridiculously low fares which are non-existent and are not really available to the passenger,” APAI president D. Sidhakara Reddy said.

Domestic carriers, incuding SpiceJet and Jet Airways , have been >rolling out limited period “special sale” offers in the last few weeks.

“We have received several complaints that the passengers do not get access to the airline’s portal and if they are able to do so and look for the advertised (special) fare for a particular sector, it shows sold out, whereas most of the other types of fares are only available for bookings,” Mr. Reddy alleged.

Pointing out that it become a routine practice by all the airlines to announce such schemes almost once in 10-15 days, APAI said: “the airlines seem to be doing this with certain objectives in mind as it gives them tremendous publicity at no cost.”

The association has also sought to know from the regulator whether the carriers do inform of the percentage of seats they offer under the special fare as they are supposed to file their fares with DGCA, indicating the quantum allocated under each type of fare offered by them under the bucket pricing method.

“If they are not then what action do you propose (to take) for not following the procedure?,” Mr. Reddy questioned in his communication.

APAI will explore the RTI route if the DGCA did not respond to its communication, Mr. Reddy added in his communication.