http://www.zeenews.com/znnew/articles.asp?aid=297334&ssid=50&sid=BUS
<Govt mulling proposal to give sops to pvt airlines New Delhi, May 23: Government is considering a proposal to give sops to airlines for linking metropolitan cities and small towns, Minister of State for Civil Aviation Praful Patel informed the Rajya Sabha today.> In yesterday's TOI there is a story titled "Free landing, cheaper ATF at smaller cities". It begins by itemising five year 'holiday' from parking and navigation charges for operating 'feeder services' (presumably from small towns to metros); and a mere 4% levy of duties on ATF (vs 24-38% charged at most airports). But what takes the cake is the following: "The airlines that choose to operate flights between small towns spread across India and connect them to major metros will also be offered concessions for overnight parking of planes AT SOME OF THE METROS LIKE MUMBAI AND DELHI, civil aviation minister Praful Patel said." Now the hon Minister never fails to give lip sevice in TV appearances to the need for reducing the concentration of Mumbai and Delhi in the country's air traffic scenario. This is generally placed at a minimum of 50% and could be as high as 70% for the two. All along the talk was about encouraging new airlines to use smaller arports as bases. Now we have a switch which involves incentives to feeder airlines to not only fly to congested metros but park their planes there! What's the big idea? In his heart of hearts the minister seems to subscribe to the old fashioned hub and spoke system of airline route planning. What is needed in India is the point-to-point system of direct low cost flights. Feeder airlines should be prepared to fly to smaller airports near the metros. Thus part of the journey on such airlnes could be by surface transport (car, bus, taxi, train etc). In this way, the metros like Mumbai and Delhi can be bypassed if needed and congestion would be alleviated. _____________________________________________ Do not post admin requests to the list. Goanet mailing list ([email protected])
