Airlines eye babus on vacation

Airline companies have urged the finance ministry to allow government employees to avail leave travel allowance (LTA) and leave travel concession (LTC) for travel by air, tapping special fares provided on select routes even if they do not fit into the entitlement bracket.
In several cases, the airline industry has argued, the government would end up spending less on LTA/LTC by allowing employees to opt for air travel instead of rail. On high-density routes such as Mumbai-Delhi, representatives of the industry have emphasised, it is possible to find air fares cheaper than upper class railway tariff.
Presently, most government employees travel by rail while availing LTA or LTC, as entitlements for a majority of them are based on this mode of transport. The aviation industry has argued that since air fares have dropped significantly, the government employees should be allowed to tap cheaper fares offered by airlines to utilise LTA and LTC benefit, irrespective of their entitlement.
15/02/07 Sunny Verma & G Ganapathy Subramaniam/Economic Times

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Categories: General Aviation feb 2007