New Delhi, Feb. 23: A body promoting flier rights has complained to the government and the directorate-general of civil aviation against domestic airlines repeatedly and sharply raising their ticket cancellation charges.

IndiGo, Air India and SpiceJet this month revised their penalty fees on ticket refunds as a "deterrent" against cancellations. Many airlines are expected to follow suit.

Budget carrier IndiGo last week fixed its minimum and maximum cancellation charges at Rs 1,900 and Rs 2,250, up from Rs 1,500 and Rs 2,050.

IndiGo will also continue levying a no-show charge (where the passengers get only the taxes and government fees in refund) if tickets are cancelled within two hours of a flight's departure.

Air India has hiked its domestic ticket cancellation fee to Rs 2,000 from Rs 1,500, and SpiceJet to Rs 1,899 (up by almost Rs 100).

AirAsia India, another budget carrier, has the lowest cancellation charges among its peer airlines, at Rs 1,250.

"We've been flooded with complaints from peeved fliers who are feeling the pinch, so we are taking the matter up with the regulatory authorities," said D. Sudhakar Reddy, president of the Air Passengers Association of India.

He said airfares in some sectors were only a little over Rs 2,000 and that the revised cancellation charges would mean the passenger would hardly get any refund.

"What the airlines are doing is very unfair. Not everybody who books a ticket is able to make the journey on the scheduled day, but the passenger should not be penalised so heavily," Reddy said.

A tour operator said several low-cost carriers had last year raised cancellation fees on the domestic sector from Rs 1,400 to Rs 1,700.

"One airline took the step and the others followed," said Mithun Chauhan, managing director of the Mumbai-based Ambience Holidays.

"That may happen again," said Sidhartha D, a travel agent from Bangalore. "The fallout of such moves is that passengers do not book much in advance, and our business gets hit."

The airlines argue that the hike is a way of generating revenue during the "tourist lean season".

"Our fares have remained low because of falling jet fuel prices, but after the festive season the need was felt to increase the cancellation fee to discourage passengers from changing their travel plans," said an Air India official.

A SpiceJet spokesperson said the carrier had only made a "correction" to its cancellation policy. "We had probably one of the lowest cancellation charges in India, and are now trying to be competitive."

An IndiGo executive said the charges had been increased on the basis of industry trends. "The charges depend on the kind of fare and the flight. There is a range of penalties."

Senior officials at the aviation ministry, which has virtually abandoned a proposal to impose a cap on airfares that it had announced last year, said the issue of cancellation charges would be examined.

"We normally do not interfere with prices in the aviation industry, but if it is affecting a large number of fliers we can take up the issue," a joint secretary-level official said.