Ticket fares set by airlines in India

The Indian authorities have given new powers to the country's airlines, allowing for the first time for the companies themselves to set ticket prices.

National regulator, the directorate general of civil aviation (DGCA) has always been required to give its authorisation to airlines in India to ticket prices in the past.

However, the government has now moved to relax its laws on the matter in the hope that deregulation of the airlines will help to foster more competition between carriers, thereby encouraging them to reduce costs of flights.

That will be welcome news for travellers to the region, who may find that ticket prices for both internal and external flights by Indian airlines will start to come down.

India's government established the regulatory requirements to prevent the emergence of cartels, which might put up costs, but the explosion of low-cost carriers across the world in recent years has meant the policy was holding back the Indian market and keeping prices at an unfairly high level.