Cheap airline tickets are bad for the masses

The other day I tried booking family tickets from New Delhi to Kolkata and compared the price of travelling in a train vis-a-vis a plane. Unsurprisingly, I found Kolkata Rajdhani first AC ticket @ Rs 4,775 to be more expensive than Air India’s Rs @3,999. This is not news, indeed. Sometimes we even see how airlines offer tickets for Rs 1 no less.

The newbie Air Asia is burning money to fly people under Rs 2,000. For we, Indians, nothing works better than flying high at railway fares.

According to recent media reports, within one month of its launch in the country, AirAsia India, which fuelled fresh price war in the domestic aviation markets, incurred Rs 26 crore loss. If reports are to be believed, another low-cost carrier, SpiceJet, is moving fast towards the fate of Kingfisher, which was grounded last year, owing to huge debts and operating losses. The Maharaja, Air India has become a burden on the government.

If they are doing business and aim to make profit out of it, they must devise a plan to make flying a profitable business with a profitable model rather than shooting in the air and relying on government's funds when plans head south.  

This modus operandi is clearly not working out as airlines crash and burn cash to gain market-share and then expect the government to bail them with the taxpayers money. Should we all pay for the elite flying club?

I am not talking in the air. There have been talks of bailout packages to the airlines. In fact, Air India has been getting huge money from the government's coffers to fill in the gaps and keep it afloat.

Since the 2009 meltdown, there started a culture of seeking bailout packages among the companies in the form of some tax rebates and subsidies. In fact, some sectors have got and continue getting it even now. For aviation industry, there were some government-recommended soft loans for the Kingfisher but it could not be saved.

Even when government of India pumps in money into Air India, it's from the pockets of the taxpayer.

My point in this: why should the common man like a rickshaw-puller pay for flyers by virtue of paying taxes? And, the way these airliners are mindlessly thronging the sky, will certainly lead to chaos in future. In any case, even if a carrier does not get the government aid, it will have a negative effect if it meets the Kingfisher's fate.