Ajit Singh, Minister for Civil Aviation, has directed Air India to stop the Companion Free Scheme with immediate effect. This action was taken following the detection of irregularities.
The Vigilance Department of Air India earlier discovered serious irregularities and misuse of Companion Free Scheme (CFS) in Air India while scrutinizing the CFS data from October, 2011 to April, 2012, for tickets issued at Delhi Airport. Under the scheme , passengers buying first class or business class tickets or full fare economy class tickets are entitled to one free ticket for their companion.
Similar irregularities have also been detected in the CFS tickets issued at Chandigarh where 435 tickets were scrutinized.