New Delhi, March 20
With a massive increase in the prices of the aviation turbine fuel (ATF), domestic carrier Indian Airlines today hiked its fares by 15 per cent across the board with immediate effect.
The decision to hike the prices had been pending for sometime now as the hike in the ATF prices had been effected in December last. There has been a hike of 44 per cent in the prices of ATF since December.
Civil Aviation Minister Shahnawaz Hussain told reporters here that the decision to increase the fares was not connected with the US-led war against Iraq.
A decision on hiking the fares of Air-India would be taken later, he said, adding that the Indian Airlines had made a request for a fare hike a few weeks ago.
Air-India has also sought a 10 per cent hike in its fares due to the increase in the ATF rates from 101 cents per gallon in December to 117 cents in February, 133 cents on March 1 and 144 cents on March 15.
The minister also said Air-India and the Indian Airlines were still operating its normal schedule to the Gulf countries, especially to Kuwait, Dammam and Bahrain as the airspace had not yet been closed due to the war, which began early today.
“So long as the airspace over Gulf is open to traffic, they will continue to operate their normal schedule to these places,” he said, stressing that there had been no suspension of flights to Gulf stations as yet.
Asked whether a war surcharge would be imposed on the air fares, the Minister did not rule it out, but said it would depend on a decision of the International Air Transport Association (IATA).
The government had already decided to suspend Air-India and Indian Airlines flights to Bahrain, Dammam and Kuwait whenever the airspace is closed. Such a move would lead the two carriers to suffer an aggregate loss of about Rs 110 crore per month.
While AI was estimated to suffer a loss of about Rs 70 crore, IA’s loss would be about Rs 40 crore. The “two-pronged attack” on the two airlines would be from the rise in ATF prices as well as the fact that their aircraft would have to make a detour of over 90 minutes to circumvent the war zone.
As it is, the airlines were suffering a loss of Rs 40 crore a year due to restrictions on overflying Pakistani airspace and a rise in flying time by at least one hour.
