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Civil Aviation Minister Rammohan Naidu Kinjarapu, participating during the Question Hour in Lok Sabha on Thursday, attended to many questions related to the exorbitant rise in airfares, delays in flights, and aviation-related infrastructure in the country.
He took note of the questions raised by several parliamentarians on the high airfare, reiterating that his commitment as a minister is to make airfares affordable. The minister said that setting airfare is a market-driven process. "This is a market-driven approach that the airlines use for deciding the airfares," he noted. He also apprised the parliament about the aircraft that are currently grounded due to engine issues, which he said caused an additional burden to the overall fleet. "There are 800 odd planes in the country. and because of the (some) engine issue, almost 120 planes are grounded, and they are not able to fly. Because of the lack of the aircraft that we have in our fleet, there is a lot of additional burden on the existing aircraft - which is also driving up the prices," he asserted. "One happy thing all must know, we have 1200 aircraft on order, the highest in the world. We are ensuring that they are coming on time, they are delivered on time. We are ensuring from the ministry whatever best we can do." Shafi Parambil, Congress MP from Kerala, asked the minister what the civil aviation ministry is doing to keep exorbitant airfares in check, particularly for the Kerala NRIs. Parambil complained that NRIs are forced to buy flight tickets at exorbitantly high rates when they fly back to their homeland. He also alleged that due to the high ticket prices, people sometimes even cannot visit home during family emergencies. The minister replied by saying that he sympathized with the Kerala MP for the issues that he had flagged, and explained the airfare dynamics. Dayanidhi Maran from DMK also raised questions about the sudden sharp rise in air fares, particularly when the customers approach payment gateway for payments for the tickets they purchase. He shared his personal experience, saying that his ticket price for a Chennai-Delhi flight rose two-to-threefold during the payment gateway process. Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla intervened and asked the Minister to look into the matter, as the parliamentarians' flight ticket bills are taken care of by the government. The Minister responded, "DGCA has a Tariff Monitoring Unit, which looks after this specific issue you have raised. We are going to investigate that. We are going to ensure that this kind of incident doesn't happen in the future." During the Question Hour, TMC MP Sudip Bandyopadhyay asked the Minister about the status of the second airport in Kolkata. The Minister said, "The need is there. And definitely, if the land is available and the state supports the construction and others. Definitely, we are going to take it up positively." He assured the TMC parliamentarian that both of them would discuss this matter in detail at a special meeting. (ANI)
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