'Liquor on flights will promote local wine industry'

NEW DELHI: Backing the call by MPs to allow airlines to serve Indian wine and beer on domestic flights, independent MP from Haryana Tarlochan Singh said it was the practice globally. He suggested that the government should allow serving small bottles of Indian brands, and restrict it to maybe one per passenger.

"In the US, domestic airlines take such bottles on a trolley and passengers can pick any one. Allowing it would help promote local wine industry in Maharashtra and other states," said Singh, who was present at the meeting of MPs on Wednesday. A prominent Congress MP is also learnt to be among those who supported the proposal in Rahul Gandhi's presence at the meeting.

Among domestic carriers, Kingfisher has asked for relaxation of the ban on serving alcoholic beverages on flights. The government had earlier promised to look into this demand. But now with MPs taking up the issue with "farmer interest" in mind domestic, fliers could soon be saying cheers over Indian skies.

Members also called for doing away with the norm of not allowing a second airport within 150 km of an existing one.

This would have a direct bearing on Greater Noida airport proposal which is being stiffly opposed by the GMR Group that's developing IGI just 72 km away from the proposed site in UP. The MPs wanted the government to allow multiple airports in metros.

Praful Patel said that the ministry fully shared this view. A group consisting of the finance and civil aviation ministers and deputy chairman of the Planning Commission had been set up to see how to take this process further.

Patel assured the members that a new policy for airports would be in place in the first half of 2008. The MPs also protested against the 'night curfew' that is imposed by a number of European nations, which leads to inconvenience to passengers travelling from other countries.

Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com