The papers are regularly full of how the government intends to build new airports and upgrade existing ones. Two new ones have been recently opened at Hyderabad and Bangalore. Delhi and Mumbai are being upgraded. All this is being done by private companies which will then make their profit by charging passengers for use of the airport. Already air travel in India is exorbitant compared other countries. For instance it is cheaper to go from Delhi to Bangkok than it is to Kerala. This is because politicians and kleptocrats are determined to keep air travel out of the reach of the aam aadmi although they themselves regularly travel by air. Taxes on aircraft fuel, ATF is highest in India. Every ticket carries a very high tax burden. For example a ticket to New York will cost about Rs. 57000 of which about Rs. 15000 will be tax. On domestic routes taxes are fixed so if an airline offers a cheap ticket for Rs. 100 the passenger will have to pay Rs. 2000 because the amount of tax is not reduced. Private airlines are forbidden from serving alcohol. Partly this is to protect the state companies, Air India and Indian Airlines which are poorly run companies with very poor service and enormous corruption levels so that they almost always run at a loss. The other reason is to force people to travel by rail so that upper class passengers are used to subsidise travel by the poor in inhuman conditions. Not much point buiding airports if we cannot afford to fly.