Govt should help airlines: SBI

New Delhi: In an exclusive interaction with NDTV, OP Bhatt, chairman of the State Bank of India (SBI) said that the government should come forward and help aviation Industry
“The government has tried a helping hand for every industry including exports. If they do it for aviation, they would be able to get out of the woods,” Bhatt said.
The industry has suffered losses to the tune of Rs 10,000 crore with state owned Air India's losses alone running into nearly Rs 7000 crore.
Now, with the markets improving, Bhatt says the airline operators could look at tapping the equity market to raise funds.
“Airlines require equity and all of them are aware of it. The timing is right and so they are exploring the option,” he said.
The aviation industry might be looking at possible options in order to bail themselves out from this mess. However, with most of the aircraft on lease and no improvement in traffic, finding collaterals for loans will be quite difficult.
12/08/09 NDTV.com

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Categories: Indian Aviation- In General Aug 2009