'Airline minister' Praful Patel flies in private airlines!

[katharnak]

This would definitely not be music to the ears of the cash-strapped Air India.
Union Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel, who had been making a strong case for reviving the national carrier, has been patronising the number one rival of the airlines instead.
Patel chose to fly Kingfisher Airlines about 70 per cent more than Air India for all domestic travels during the last one year, it has been learnt.

The loss-making national carrier has been struggling to pay salary to its 31,000 staff. It posted a net loss of Rs 5,200 crore in 2008-09 and is expected to lose another Rs 5,400 crore in the fiscal ended March 2010.
In fact, in July 2009, the Finance Ministry had ordered all central government employees to fly only on the state-owned flag carrier for their official travel -- both domestic and international.

The order was issued to shore up revenue streams for the cash-strapped Air India and to lend confidence to a clutch of lenders the airlines had planned to tap for medium term loans.

"For travel to stations not connected by AI, officials may travel by AI to the point closest to their eventual destination, beyond which they may utilise the services of another airline, which should also preferably be an alliance partner of the national carrier," the order stated.

Patel, however, chose to fly the number one private airlines for most of his domestic travels undertaken during the period June 1, 2009 to July 2, 2010.