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New Delhi: On Monday (November 2), the Union government stepped into the airline sector with new rules, giving itself more powers to regulate flight ticket prices. On the same day, the Supreme Court dismissed a plea mentioned before it to control “extremely high” ticket prices, telling the advocate, “Don’t travel by air. Next case.”

The new aviation rules are understood to be a result of the Supreme Court saying it would step in to regulate flight prices during festival seasons.

Airlines have said prices are skyrocketing due to elevated Aviation Turbine Fuel (ATF) prices. The continued hike in ticket costs has contributed to forcing the government to intervene in a sector that has more or less independently determined ticket prices for 32 years. The new rules will kick in on January 1, 2027.

The developments come against the backdrop of a petitioner, S. Laxminarayanan, who had approached the Supreme Court in 2025 with a Public Interest Litigation (PIL), saying that aviation fares had increased during the Kumbh festival to 700% of normal fares, reports Live Law.

The petitioner has said that the increase in ATF does not explain why airline ticket costs are skyrocketing. As per a previous report on Live Law, the PIL said:

“The airlines attribute such fares to the cost of aviation turbine fuel, and Respondent No. 1 (Union of India) has publicly echoed that explanation. It does not bear scrutiny. The fuel burnt by the 5:00 AM and the 3:45 PM flight on the same route and day is the same, yet one fare is over two and a half times the other. During the hearing on 13.07.2026, this Hon’ble Court noticed that airlines cite fuel prices and geopolitical events to justify increases of 100% to 300%, though the impact of fuel on cost is small. A rise in fuel cost may justify a marginal........

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