‘NDA nearly sold off Air India’

He said it was during the NDA rule that Air India lost out to competition, as it was not allowed to buy new carriers. “During the previous regime, the national carrier faced the heat of competition from the private sector because it could not procure aircraft. The NDA Government consciously chose to kill the airline. Earlier, under Rajiv Gandhi’s leadership and now under Dr Manmohan Singh’s government, aircrafts are being procured for the national carrier”, he said.

He added that the Air India-Indian Airlines merger does not spell disaster and it is only to strengthen and fortify them to meet competition. He said competition has led to more choice and facilities and more airlines, ushering in a balance into the sector.

The minister expressed surprise over Rudy’s remark that there was a “cartelisation of Air India-Jet-Sahara”. He said had this been the case then the national carrier would have been levying congestion charges on passengers.

On the Standing Committee recommendations on doing away with the newly introduced user development fee in private airports, Patel said that these are acceptable norms when massive capital expenditure is needed.