Hitting an air pocket

Hitting an air pocket


Your editorial (The Hindu Feb 19) reflects the confusion in public mind about the logic in hiking air fares in the face of sharp fall in fuel prices. It is known that the aviation turbine fuel (ATF) prices constitute 40-45 per cent costs of air operations and with the sharp fall in ATF prices, the air fares should have been slashed in public interest. But the airlines did just the opposite. Your assumption that they are in a cartelisation mode lends credibility. If the fall in air traffic is about 14.65 per cent, the airlines are squarely to blame. Again, the tendency to flock the metro routes needs to reexamined in the light of traffic offerings available for smaller cities and holiday destinations. If Paramount Airways can muster 80 per cent seat occupancy rates, their marketing skills need to be replicated by other airlines for common good. Hiking airfares at this juncture is nothing short of fleecing the public.


A.R.K.Pillai
Feb 19-09