Finance Minister Arun Jaitley rubbished Congress allegations that the government is using public money to bail out the financially beleaguered airline Jet Airways by converting Rs 8,500 of debt into equity. Instead, the government is actually saving air passengers from having to shell out high airfares, he said in an interview to ET Now, adding that the government was not funding the promoters.
The government can’t let a major Indian brand Jet Airways to collapse, as with the fall of the airline all the investment will go, and the public sector banks along with other creditors would be the real losers.
On the other hand, the failing of Jet Airways would lead to a surge in airfares as the demand for aircraft would only expand in the coming years. “The second set of losers will be the consumers. One airline goes out of the system, there is a shortage of aircraft in the expanding market. The number of aircraft in the next ten years has to multiply five times. The demand and supply mismatch will take place and the fares will skyrocketing,” said Arun Jaitley.
