DMK MLA T R B Raaja, who is also the head of the party’s IT wing, on Thursday mooted a state-owned airline to fly within Tamil Nadu while flagging the “high airfare” between the state capital and the port city of Thoothukudi.
Raaja also proposed that the airline could be named as PeriAir, a short form for social reformer E V R Periyar. The MLA took to Twitter to talk about the “high ticket fare” between Chennai and Thoothukudi which was between Rs 17,000 to Rs 20,000.
“#FlightTickets for an ATR flight from #Tuticorin to #Chennai. One can fly to Singapore with this money. Is it TIME to operate a #StateOwned flight service? "PeriAir" sounds like a good name. Why not? Periyar gave wings to TN's equitable growth model,” Raaja, also the son of former Union Minister T R Baalu, wrote on his verified Twitter page.
He also posted a screenshot of the ticket fare between the two cities. In other tweets posted on his page, Raaja argued that an airline that serves within the state connecting its five airports – Chennai, Madurai, Coimbatore, Tiruchirapalli, and Thoothukudi – with each other.
The tweets led to a discussion on Twitter with many supporting the idea of state-owned airline service.