Fly Delhi-Shimla, pay congestion surcharge for Mumbai-New Delhi

New Delhi: Airlines in India are making domestic passengers who fly on short routes, say Delhi to Jaipur, subsidise those travelling longer routes, national capital to Chennai, for instance. For both hauls, passengers are charged equal fuel and congestion surcharge despite the fact that shorter routes consume less fuel and there is no congestion at many non-metro airports. As a result, millions of short-haul air passengers are suffering due to the lack of differential pricing in surcharges.
All domestic carriers charge Rs 1,725 as fuel and congestion surcharge for a one-way flight despite operating on different routes and having different business models. Currently, of the Rs 1,725 an average domestic air passenger pays as taxes and surcharges, as reflected on the air-ticket, only Rs 225 goes to the government as passenger service tax. The rest, Rs 1,500, goes straight into the airlines’ coffer. Of the Rs 1,500 that an airline nets from the taxes and surcharges head, Rs 150 is towards congestion and Rs 1,350 as fuel surcharge.
Though airline heads agree that from the consumer’s point of view there should be differential pricing for surcharge, they maintain that implementing it will be difficult.
27/11/07 Vishakha Talreja & Harsimran Singh/Economic Times

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Categories: General Aviation Nov 2007