Plea for reducing airports charges

Hyderabad: The airline industry today made a strong plea to Indian airports to reduce landing, parking and navigation charges, with a top Jet Airways officer saying India accounted for only two per cent of global air travel but 30 per cent of the world losses.
Of an estimated $8.7 billion global losses, Indian airlines accounted for almost $3 billion, said Jet Airways chief commercial officer Mr Sudheer Raghavan at the Asian Route Development Forum conference here.
“India has two per cent of global air travel, but its airlines account for 30 per cent of the global losses,” he said, referring to the “extremely low fares” being charged by Indian carriers last year even when jet fuel prices were rising.
Observing that 80 per cent of airport revenues were generated out of aeronautical activities like various airport charges, he made a strong plea for reversing the trend, saying the airports should aim at hiking non-aeronautical revenues, like those from hotels, shopping-malls and other sources, in order to slash charges for the airlines.
The International Air Transport Association (IATA), has also appealed to the Indian government and private airport operators to reduce airport charges drastically.
29/03/09 Press Trust of India/The Statesman

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Categories: Airports Mar 2009