Flier fee plea in airport delay

New Delhi: The plan panel has cited the flier’s pocket in times of rising prices to sit on the civil aviation ministry’s plan to modernise Calcutta airport.
“Our intention was to protect users from excessive increase in user charges,” Gajendra Haldia, adviser to Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia, said.
The plan panel has also asked the ministry to consider turning the existing international terminal at Calcutta, which is to be demolished under the ministry’s plans, into a separate terminal for low-cost airlines where user charges for both passengers and carriers would be low.
The panel estimates that user charges at the new terminal in Calcutta could rise to Rs 800 per passenger per flight if the airport is developed the way the ministry wants it, sources said. Haldia, however, refused to confirm this.
In Hyderabad and Bangalore, where new airports have been built, the operators’ plans to hike user charges from Rs 250 to Rs 700-800 have sparked anger. The issue has been raised in the Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka Assemblies and in Parliament.
17/05/08 Jayanta Roy Chowdhury/The Telegraph

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Categories: Airports May 2008