Private airlines put on hold protest action

All major private airlines, who had called for a strike on August 18, have decided to put their proposed protest action on hold in view of the “agitated public sentiments and potential inconvenience to thousands of travelling public.”

In a brief statement here on Sunday night, the Federation of Indian Airlines (FIA) said the decision was also prompted by the government’s “willingness” to enter into a dialogue.

The FIA expressed the hope that talks with the government would lead to redressal of the grievances of the civil aviation industry.

The statement was issued on behalf of Jet Airways, Kingfisher, GoAir, SpiceJet and IndiGo.

The U-turn by the FIA came within 48 hours of the call for suspension of all domestic flights on August 18 in protest against the high rate of sales tax on aviation turbine fuel (ATF) and airport taxes.

The government had firmly ruled out the possibility of giving any bailout package to them. While favouring the way of dialogue to sort out the problems faced by the industry, Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel had said the government understood the difficulties being faced by the aviation sector.

However, it did not support any move that would cause inconvenience to the travelling public, he said while asserting that Air India would mount additional flights on that day.

Even before the FIA formally withdrew its call for suspension of flights, cracks had started appearing in the grouping.

IndiGo and SpiceJet backed out of the protest action and favoured talks with the government.

According to the FIA, the estimated losses of the industry in 2008-09 would be Rs. 10,000 crore.

FIA secretary-general Anil Baijal had said the additional imposition of levies by the airport operators for the industry would be close to $250 million in a year.

While saying that the industry realised its role in the life of a nation, he said it might not be able to continue operations in view of the indifference shown by the government towards the industry.


Source: The Hindu