India, March 19 -- The set of directives issued by the ministry of civil aviation through DGCA to airlines, among them the order to offer at least 60% of seats on a flight without any extra charge to passengers checking in online and to seat fliers with the same PNR together, should help the cause of passenger rights in the third-largest domestic aviation market in the world.

Given that the Indian civil aviation space is a near duopoly - with IndiGo and Air India accounting for the bulk of the market - such regulatory intervention also signals an attempt to discipline the key players that are setting the tone for the others. For instance, all airlines now charge for seat preference, a practice that was unheard of in the Indian market til...