Central Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel today said, the Ahmedabad-London direct flight remained non-starter because Air India is facing shortage of aircraft.

Patel had promised Ahmedabad-London direct flight in a public function last year at Ahmedabad airport. He had promised to renew Ahmedabad-London direct air service from winter schedule of 2010-11. However the service never started, and it was nowhere included in winter schedule. This was Patel’s first visit to Ahmedabad after this ‘broken promise’ episode.

After unveiling the statue of Shri Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel today morning at Ahmedabad airport, when Patel was briefing the media persons on his this achievement, DeshGujarat promtly asked the Minister a question about his unkept promise of Ahmedabad-London direct flight. DG thus tried to give voice to the feelings of thousands of Gujaratis settled in U.K.

Patel perhaps expected this and he had a ready reply: “So far as Air India is concerned, the problem is that the Air India had ordered 27 Boeing 787 aircraft, but the Boeing company delayed the entire programme by about two years, because of which the Air India faces problem about starting of new services.”

“However, when it come to Ahmedabad and Gujarat, we are doing full efforts to provide maximum domestic and international connectivity,” Patel added.

When asked to give specific answer on when he intends to start direct Ahmedabad-London service, the minister said:”We are trying that if we can get aircraft on lease, we can start the London service.”

On the sideline of the function, during informal talk with DeshGujarat, the central minister said, “even I’m Gujarati, and why I would not like to keep the promise that I made, but before criticizing me, you people need to understand the total picture of aviation industry where new services are launched or discontinued based on traffic figures and economic viability.”

This prompted DG to ask:”Tell frankly, what exactly the air operators think about Ahmedabad-London direct service according to your knowledge? Do they find it viable, or are they reluctant to start direct flight because of the possibility that there will be less traffic and direct service might be unviable?”

Patel replied, “yes that is the fact.”

“Tell me, why Jet Airways discontinued its direct Ahmedabad-London service? Because the project was found unviable after a little period of operation?” Minister Patel threw a question his time.

“It’s seasonal traffic here(to and from Ahmedabad) when it comes to direct flight to London, just seasonal,” Patel concluded.