A Transport Ministry advisory committee Thursday recommended that domestic air fares be liberalized as early as 1999.
A working group of the Council for Transport Policy wrapped up a report that recommends adopting a notification system of air fares that would allow airlines to decide fares themselves and then notify the ministry.
Currently, fares must fall within parameters set by the ministry. However, the panel suggested creating a mechanism in which the government can instruct airlines to change notified air fares in order to prevent them from charging unreasonably expensive fares and using cheap predatory air fares to drive away competition.
The advisory panel to the transport minister has discussed ways to cope with problems anticipated after the Ministry lifts a supply-demand control for the domestic aviation industry in fiscal 1999.