Welcome to Calcutta, but pay ‘strike cess’

Calcutta: Calcutta’s strike culture has pushed its airport authorities into an embarrassing scrap with domestic and international carriers.
At the centre of the row is the Airports Authority of India’s demand this morning that the airlines pay up for the delay in clearing their cargo from its warehouse during the March 12-13 strike.
The airlines, protesting the delay was the fault of the AAI’s own striking employees, stopped booking cargo in or out of Calcutta.
Red-faced AAI officials, who had gone by the book in clamping the fine, were tonight hinting at a waiver if their Delhi headquarters okayed the concession tomorrow.
The mess, however, threatens to make a laughing stock of Calcutta, the lone airport to be hobbled by the March 12-13 “country-wide” strike.
“I received a fax (from the Calcutta AAI) this evening and was extremely surprised,” K. Mishra, executive director (cargo), AAI, told The Telegraph from New Delhi. “Cargo uploading and offloading were normal in all other airports during the strike.”
Airlines can stock cargo in the AAI warehouse free of charge for 48 hours. After that, they must pay a sort of late fee or “demurrage charges” of Rs 1.50 per kg per day.
14/03/08 Sanjay Mandal/The Telegraph

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