Maintain financial bottomline, pvt airlines urged

New Delhi: The government cautioned private airlines to maintain their financial bottomline so as to prevent the repeat of the situation in the early 1990s when several carriers folded up after becoming economically unviable.
This message was given to the CEOs of major private carriers by Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel, with the airlines urging the Ministry to take up their concerns over several issues including high jet fuel prices.
Patel allayed apprehensions about the health of the aviation industry saying, "the situation is not as grim as is being made out to be. But most airlines are in a growth phase. So much capacity is coming in and there is a very high induction cost including a high fuel cost".
The private carriers urged the Minister to take up the issue of high ATF costs and high incidence of taxation on it, with Patel promising them that he would take up the matter with Finance Minister P Chidambaram and Petroleum Minister Murli Deora.
28/09/06 Financial Express

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