New Delhi, Dec 5: The Videocon group on Tuesday said they would slash theair fare by 30 per cent in case they wrest the management control of theIndian Airlines, up for sale by the government. "We intend to slash fares byabout 30 per cent and make them just about slightly more than first classtrain travel," chairman of the Videocon group Venugopal Dhoot said in aninterview with a leading website on Tuesday.Taking a dig at Jet Airways for taking advantage of the inefficiency of IAand jacking up air fares, Mr Dhoot said the move to slash the air fare wouldresult in three-fold increase in the traffic. "This move will treble airtraffic and to meet this huge increase in demand, we could add around 45more planes to the fleet. Our conviction is that there is a large demand forlocal air travel, but Indian Airlines is unable to meet this demand, trappedas it is in a vicious circle of high fares and low utilisation of aircraft,"he said.
He said those who are currently trying to exploit the market by arbitrarilyraising fares without offering any value additions would be left behind.The group's assets, if valued afresh, would enable the Dhoots to raise moremoney. "We have Rs 800 crore as assets on our balance sheets and we aretying for the rest as debt," he said.
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