Higher fuel charge may hike cost for airlines

New Delhi: Travellers may have to pay more for flying to and from Chennai or Kolkata. The oil companies which have bid for new fuel stations at these airports have offered throughput fees which is 17 (Kolkata) to 21 (Chennai) times higher than what the state-owned PSUs pay. Three state-owned oil companies which are already supplying fuel at these airports will also have to pay the higher throughput fees.
Throughput fees are paid by fuel suppliers to the airport developer, in this case the Airport Authority of India (AAI).
Earlier, the throughput price was fixed by the AAI as only PSUs were allowed to supply aircraft fuel.
The AAI recently invited bids for one fuel station each in Chennai and Kolkata with the clause that the supplier offering the highest throughput fees would get the contract.
This fee would also be levied on the existing suppliers.
Airlines say this will cause an additional burden, though they are not sure how much of the additional cost will be passed on to them since the oil companies do not give the cost break-up.
02/07/07 Anirban Chowdhury/Business Standard

To Read the News in full at Source, Click the Headline

Categories: General Aviation Jul 2007