Budget: Aviation industry had nothing to cheer about

The contrast could not have been starker. On Tuesday, Lalu Prasad’s Railway Budget had both coolies and passengers breaking into a jig. But when P Chidambaram finished delivering the Union budget on Friday, neither air travellers — who were expecting surging airfares to fall — nor the aviation industry had any thing to cheer about.
For, none of the industry’s expectations had been fulfiled by the Budget. In fact, of the 187 paras in the FM’s speech, there was just one line directly mentioned the sector — helicopter pilot training — and not on the issues that could have helped airfares to fall a bit. This despite the fact the Economic Survey admitted that "profitability of the domestic airline industry is under tremendous pressure as almost all airline operators in the country are reported to be making losses."
Aviation minister Praful Patel said: "We were expecting some relief on ATF pricing. But we will continue pursuing the issue with state governments and the FM."
A fuming Air Deccan founder Captain Gopinath said: "It’s shocking. Aviation does not find a mention as infrastructure while roads, ports and Railway do."
01/03/08 Times of India

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Categories: Indian Aviation- In General Mar 2008