IDEAS TAKE FLIGHT: Vijay Mallya, CMD, Kingfisher Airlines, with Ashini Kakkar, president, TAAI, during a business session on `Future is now' held at HICC in Madhapur on Sunday.

HYDERABAD: There is nothing low about costs. Low-cost carriers (LCCs) they call themselves, but they are effectively low-fare airlines. When they cannot cover even operating costs, the airlines have only two alternatives — either go out of business or increase the fares. They are only deceiving the public, according to Vijay Mallya, CMD, Kingfisher Airlines.

At a business session of the 55th edition of the Travel Agents' Association of India (TAAI) convention here on Sunday, he wondered how sustainable would low fares be after a point of time. He said now was the time to think practically in terms of infrastructure for the aviation and tourism sectors on sensible air fares and sustainable growth. Serious action was required and that was the need of the hour, he observed. G.R. Gopinath, MD, Air Deccan, justified low fares, saying that airlines would begin making profits with increasing volume of air traffic. He said an estimated 18 million people used trains while 12 million travelled by bus daily.

Even if 10 per cent of them were enabled to fly, the volume would be mind-boggling and the aviation sector would grow by leaps and bounds, with a direct effect on the economy. "How to engineer the shift is the question that airlines need to work on," he noted.

"We are trying quick-fix solutions for Mumbai and New Delhi. Why can't people think of brand new airports in these cities?" he asked, going on to appreciate the initiatives in Bangalore and Hyderabad where new airports are coming up.

Both Mr. Mallya and Capt. Gopinath felt that serious thought was required on developing airstrips that would spur growth in reach of airlines.

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