India's union minister for civil aviation Ashok Gajpati Raju made undignified fun of the suggestion to start a direct flight between Ahmedabad and London. During the minister's visit to Ahmedabad, senior journalist Bhupatbhai Parekh asked about his response to the demand to re-start the direct flight between Ahmedabad and London. The minister laughed at the question and to the surprise of everyone said, ‘‘I’m not supposed to fly a plane. It’s Air India who need to decide over this issue.’’
Not discouraged by his bizarre answer, Bhupatbhai said that ministers of Gujarat had already put forward their proposals to commence Ahmedabad-London direct flight when you replied that AI didn’t get enough number of passengers for this direct flight. “But on the other hand, if this flight is restarted, then it will get a good response,’’ added Bhupatbhai. The minister didn’t respond to this and hurriedly left for Delhi.
Civil aviation secretary V Somasundaran, however, stayed on in Ahmedabad. During his discussion with Bhupatbhai he added that Ahmedabad- London direct flight was started back in 2003 but due to poor response it was halted. Bhupatbhai said that this was incorrect information and sought to ally the apprehension of the aviation secretary and told him the truth saying that almost all the passengers preferred to board the direct flights leading AI to add up to its number of flights from only one a week to four or more. ‘‘The fact is that the then union cabinet minister Praful Patel had ordered to cease AI flights which helped private airlines to earn huge benefits.
Bupatbhai further suggested strongly to Somasundaram to restart the direct flight at least once in a week to know the truth about passengers. Impressed by this confident suggestion, Somasundaram logically gave a positive response to reconsider restarting the direct flight than his happy-go-lucky minister Ashok Gajpathi Raju.
Ashok Gajpati Raju was in Ahmedabad to inaugurate a one-day Gujarat Aero Conclave - 2015. This conclave was jointly organised by ministry of civil aviation, Gujarat Civil Aviation Department and FICCI on 1st April. The minister shared information about the development in the field of aviation in Gujarat and India. In this one-day conclave, Gujarat's minister of state for civil aviation Jashabhai Barad, Gujarat civil aviation secretary Sonal Mishra and other state and cabinet ministers, eminent industrialists and president of Gujarat Chamber of Commerce and Industry were present.
