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Air passengers will have to pay extra amount for availing additional facilities with aviation regulator DGCA giving a free hand to the airlines. The move has  been taken to push up their ancillary revenue.

Now, a passenger has to shell out additional amount for benefits like preferred seats and use of lounges.

Air India, Indigo and GoAir were among the first to start charging under this order in 2013. This order gave freedom to airlines charge the passengers asking for extra facilities, but a month later restricted the pre-booking of seats at 25 percent of the overall capacity on domestic flight.

The services unbundled include preferential seating, meal/snacks/ drink charges (except drinking water), charges for using lounges, check-in baggage charges and sports equipment charges among others.

The practice of charging for such facilities was launched in 2008 by some US carrier which were facing financial crisis.

Aviation think tank CAPA in a report late last year had said “To date Indian carriers have tread softly with respect to unbundling, partly because of regulatory restrictions and partly due to a reluctance to make the first move.”

“CAPA anticipates that regulations will be eased significantly over the next few months… By the end of FY 2015, LCCs are likely to be generating ancillary revenue right across the value chain.” it said.