Thursday, December 23 2004 17:52 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: With an aim to link the unconnected destinations in the country, Indian Airlines (IA) and its subsidiary Alliance Air (AA) would soon acquire small aircraft to fly to smaller cities, Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel said in New Delhi today (Dec 22, 2004).

"We will be soon inducting smaller aircraft into the public sector undertaking so that small cities around metros and important States could be well connected," he said while launching the Delhi-Dehradun flight operated by low cost airline Air Deccan.

Asked whether smaller planes were being acquired by the Indian Airlines and Alliance Air, he said, "It will be the same plan -- leasing and acquisition."

To begin with, Alliance would introduce six small aircraft and the IA Board was already working on it.

Admitting that infrastructure at various airports was not adequate, Patel said his ministry would take a holistic view of the situation and try and remove all bottlenecks.

Airports Authority of India has nearly 145 airports under its jurisdiction out of which only 80 are operational. "Of the operational airports, at least 15 to 20 need an upgradation urgently," he said, adding his ministry would act as a facilitator for growth of the industry.

Expressing the hope that the year 2005 would see the dream of an ordinary man to fly coming true, he said, "Last few months have shown an encouraging trend of increase of 30 per cent passenger load in the aviation sector.