NEW DELHI: Civil aviation minister Ashok Gajapati Raju will soon ask airlines to set aside two or three seats per flight for passengers booking last minute due to an emergency, bringing some much-needed relief to emergency fliers, who currently shell out anywhere up to five times more than the normal fare for their last-minute flights."A few seats can be reserved every flight for passengers who are flying due to medical emergencies," Raju told ET. "These seats, which could be two or even three per flight, could be opened a few hours before the departure," he said. He said a few European countries follow this system of allocating a few seats for emergency and his ministry is trying to develop a flawless system that "does not lead to any scam". "A decision will be taken after proper discussions," he said.Skyrocketing last-minute air fare has been a burning issue that passenger bodies and even members of Parliament have taken up time and again. One-way fares between Delhi and Mumbai, for example, start from Rs 3,500 but last-minute fares can go up toRs 25,000 or even more.Travel industry insiders welcomed the move to introduce an emergency quota system, saying it will be a great respite for people if implemented well. "It is a great move and will be a success only if it is implemented properly. I would suggest that the government should not look at reserving seats in all flights, as the demand would not be much in sectors with numerous flights," said Sabina Chopra, cofounder of online travel portal Yatra. com "The implementation of this scheme should also be with the airlines and the government should only monitor it through DGCA," she said.Recently, about 100 MPs across party lines wrote to the civil aviation ministry seeking intervention to curtail high last-minute fares. In December, the ministry had attempted to cap last-minute economy class fares at Rs 20,000.This move, however, has been shelved on the ground that it would amount to regulations of fares, which the government does not intend to get into. It was also pointed out that any capping of fares would also have impacted air passenger growth in the country as that would force airlines to raise starting low fares too. "Capping would have also impacted tourism in places like Srinagar.Many tourists book for their holiday to Srinagar in advance and at cheaper fares in the range of Rs 3,000 to Rs 4,000. Capping it at Rs 20,000 would have impacted tourism," a ministry official told ET. The civil aviation ministry, however, feels the government needs to act to ensure transparency in the fare structure of airlines and also put a check to unrealistically high last-minute fares.