Dissatisfied with Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju's reply that a regulatory mechanism would mean "caps and floors" which would have implications for the ailing civil aviation sector, members of Congress, SP, CPI, CPI-M and JD-U staged a walkout.
The demand was made when the House was discussing a calling attention motion on huge disparity in the air fares charged by airlines moved by Samajwadi Party member Naresh Agrawal.
He, however, did not appear favourable to the idea of setting minimum and maximum limits saying there are people who are buying tickets in advance at lower rates.
Besides Agrawal, several members including leader of Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad, sought that the government should lay down the minimum and maximum fares that can be charged. They also raised issues like baggage charges and pricing of tickets during festival season.
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While the idea was to take air travel to common man, "lots of costs go into it which reflect in tickets," he said.
On the issue of reduction in aviation fuel prices, he said that it is a highly taxed item and he has written to Chief Ministers urging them to reduce sales and other taxes on jet fuel.
Maintaining that most airlines were facing a financial crunch and not making profits, he referred to the problems faced by the sector and said "we must not throw the baby with the bathwater". While Kingfisher Airlines has "crashed", Spicejet too had faced turbulence, he said.