BJP accuses UPA of being insensitive to aviation sector
http://www.thehindu.com/holnus/002200810180324.htm
<Accusing the UPA Government of consistent insenstivity towards the civil
aviation sector and its personnel, the BJP on Friday said the present
dispensation had also frittered away the gains made by the erstwhile NDA
regime.
"The era of low cost aviation gifted by the BJP-led NDA government to the
country has been slaughtered, killing the industry overnight," BJP
spokesperson Rajiv Pratap Rudy said in a statement here.
Among the policy measures initiated by NDA, Rudy listed reducing ATF excise
duty from 16 per cent to 8 per cent, rationalising landing charges, removing
IATT and FTT, launch of low cost airlines demolishing the then prevailing
cartel, authorising private airlines to go international, building fair
competition and inducing large employment opportunities.
Other measures include revision of the charter policy, modernisation of
metro airports and clearing Greenfield airports, Rudy claimed.
"These steps induced an average growth of over 15 per cent to 40 per cent
both in international and domestic sectors correspondingly since 2003, which
has now been completely hacked," Rudy alleged.
The BJP said the aviation sector had seen negative growth of upto 16 per
cent and swallowing of low-cost airlines by "full-cost airlines" one by one
during the UPA regime.
"The government is contemplating a bail package without any counter
assurance of affordable tickets and secured employment," Rudy said. >
To my knowledge it was Ananthakumar of the BJP who had propounded the idea
of the "democratisation" of civil aviation apparently based on the
experience of pioneering low cost carrier Southwest Airlines. It was
apparently his idea of two airports for Bangalore (HAL plus a new greenfield
one) which complicated the Bangalore aviation scenario.
http://www.expressindia.com/news/ie/daily/19980730/21150894.html
Be that as it may, it is necessary to figure out how the aviation scene in
Goa will shape up. There are still no champions of low cost aviation here
given the chronic tendency to view this economic function from the limited
perspective of charter flights which average just a handful daily, that too
on a seasonal basis. Occasionally one also hears about the need for direct
flights for Goans in the Gulf. But there is still no appreciation of the
need for low cost domestic air travel for Goans (not to mention the
domestic tourists, VFRs, business people and hub travellers who make up the
bulk of passenger numbers at Dabolim civil enclave which has reached
congestion levels since 2004).
Like Ananthakumar in Bangalore a decade ago Goa is also supposedly opting
for a two airport system. But no headway has been made so far to configure
the system in a non-partisan way to viably meet the long term needs of
domestic and international air travel to and from Goa which has illusions of
being a world class destination. It is hard to understand why Goa is unable
to learn from experience instead of making practically a virtue of ignorance
a la the bottoms-up ostrich.
