Sending a firm message to private airlines insisting on massive fare hikes, government today asserted that "corrective action" will be taken within a week even as DGCA met representatives of low cost airlines and asked them to show some reasonableness in ticket pricing.

"Sure, within a week you will find corrective action ...the regulator is not helpless ... I am sure they can and they will (act) when the situation wants. It is not that we are not seeing it. The situation is being monitored," Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel said.

Top executives of three low cost airlines - Spicejet, Indigo and GoAir - were called for discussions on the issue by Director General of Civil Aviation E K Bharat Bhushan.

"The whole purpose is to ensure that there is some reasonableness about the fares," Bhushan, who was appointed to the post only yesterday, told reporters after the meeting.

He said he has called representatives of full service airlines for discussions on Monday.

The airlines' proposal of kilometre-based fare slabs was rejected earlier this week by the Civil Aviation Ministry which maintained there was "no justification" for fare hike in an "arbitrary manner".

As per the proposals, the airfares were quoted by the airlines for four distance slabs of less than 750 km, 750-1,000 km, 1,000-1,400 km and beyond 1,400 km.

Under it, a passenger buying an economy class ticket closer to the travel date may have to shell out Rs 10,500 for a Delhi-Chandigarh or Chennai-Coimbatore flight and anything upto Rs 40,000 on the Delhi-Bangalore or Delhi-Kolkata route.

The airlines have 'bucket fares' which mean there are certain number seats reserved in each flight at low fares that can be booked much in advance. As soon as these number of seats are filled, the fares grow progressively to a higher bucket closer to the date of travel.

"We have told them we want some predictability and fairness in the fares which they charge, which we are trying to enforce," Bhushan said.