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Greenfield Airports: High ‘Airport Service Fee’
Posted by Pradeep Sadanapalli | January 17, 2008 | 436 views
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Millions of passengers flying out of two greenfield airports in Hyderabad and Bangalore respectively would have to shell out user development fee beginning March this year.
The first flight would take off from GMR Hyderabad International Airport after its inauguration on March 16 while Bangalore International Airport Limited (BIAL) is scheduled on March 30.
Both airports plan to charge an airport service fee of Rs 700 a passenger for domestic flights while international passengers would be expected to cough up Rs 900.
Currently passengers pay Rs 225 as regulated by the Airports Authority of India (AAI).
Soon after the hijacking of an Indian Airlines flight in December 1999, the passenger fee was hiked to Rs 225 to bear the financial cost of providing security.
BIAL CEO Albert Brunner insist on imposing a user development fee for domestic and international passengers as part of a concession agreement signed with the Government and has sent a proposal in this regard to the Civil Aviation Ministry.
“It is the core of our revenue stream without which the operations would not be viable,” he said.
Gurcharan Bhatura, Director General of the Delhi-based aviation thinktank, Foundation for Aviation and Sustainable Tourism, told this website’s News Paper: “Revenue generation opportunities may not match the investment made in these two airports. Either airport operators are subsidised or shared by the region the airport serves. Since these two options are hard to come by, it has to be levied on traffic.”
But industry analysts expect a backlash on the issue. Subash Goyal, president of the Indian Confederation of Tourism Professional suggested hikes are ‘arbitary and discouraging’.
SOURCES:
NewIndPress
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