Airports to rework plans as carriers cut costs

New Delhi: Airport developers who were planning exclusive terminals for low-cost carriers have begun re-drawing plans as almost all domestic carriers are now switching to low-cost operations.
"We have to rework and redraw plans as most scheduled domestic carriers will now largely operate as low-cost carriers," said an official of the Airports Authority of India (AAI).
All major airports, including international airports, had earlier planned to have separate no-frill terminals for low-cost carriers. "This has to be reworked," the official told IANS requesting anonymity.
While national carrier Air India is set to launch its low cost operations next month, other full service carriers like Jet Airways and Kingfisher Airlines have already launched such operations on several domestic routes.
Air India has planned to gradually shift to the low-cost model on 70-75 percent of its domestic routes.
As a result, the AAI official said, the focus now would be on subsidising an airport's operational costs to meet the demand of low-cost operations. "The investment plan has to be worked out accordingly," he said.
This would be in the case of international and bigger airports where traffic movement was higher.
Currently, charges for airport usage, navigation and other operational costs are the same for low-cost and other carriers.
23/08/09 IANS/Economic Times

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Categories: Airports Aug 2009, Low Cost General Aug 2009