New Delhi | CPI(M) MP John Brittas on Thursday said a "duopoly" in India's aviation sector has led to exploitation  of passengers, as he mentioned the Learjet 45 crash that killed Maharashtra deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar, and the Ahmedabad Air India accident that took 260 lives.
Raising the issue during the Zero Hour in the Rajya Sabha, Brittas urged the government to use its powers to control "excessive, predatory pricing and oligopolistic practices" of the airlines.
"For many years, members have been pointing out the blatant exploitation of air passengers mainly on account of duopoly and abject abdication of responsibility by the government. I have narrated the misery and agony of pravasi Malayali who are fleeced when they come here," Brittas said.
He said Aircraft Rules, 1937 empower the DGCA to issue binding directions against excessive, predatory pricing, and oligopolistic practices.
"Government was in a denial mode, they said the market would be determined by demand-supply criteria. When the IndiGo fiasco happened, the government reluctantly invoked this Act. Is it not a fact we have been telling to act to protect the interest of air passengers?" he said.
"Even in citadel of capitalism, the US, no single domestic airline holds 25 per cent share. In China, even three largest airlines put together would not cross 60 per cent. Here, two airlines hold 90 per cent of the share," he said.
Brittas also said he had written a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the issue, and said, "When the Minister (civil aviation minister) admitted there is a duopoly and we need to deal with it, I was expecting the President's address to have some initiative on that." He said there are also serious concerns over passenger safety.
"A Learjet 45 crashed yesterday, the fatal accident that killed the deputy CM of Maharashtra... What happened in the Ahmedabad crash... we don't know what is the reason for the crash," he said.
He said the "whole gamut of issues need to be looked into".
Ajit Pawar (66) and four others were killed after an aircraft carrying them crashed near Baramati in Pune district on Wednesday morning.
In December last year, as a crisis hit India's aviation sector with domestic carrier IndiGo cancelling hundreds of flights, Brittas had written to Prime Minister Modi, in which he had said what passes as "competition" in Indian aviation is in reality a near lockout by two dominant players, "a duopoly unrivalled even among major global aviation markets".
He had urged the Prime Minister to constitute either a Joint Parliamentary Committee or a Judicial Commission of Inquiry to comprehensively investigate the regulatory failures, airline preparedness, dilution of safety norms, fare escalation patterns, the policy framework that has enabled such extreme concentration of  market power.
