User fee: Little hope for air passengers at Thiruvananthapuram

Thiruvananthapuram : The air passengers from the State would indeed be paying a heavy price for the lack of a timely intervention by the State Government in the issue of imposing user fee on international travellers at the Thiruvananthapuram Airport.
The Airports Economic Regulatory Authority (AERA) had convened a meeting of the officials concerned here on April 5 to gather the views on imposing user fee. Though the State Chief Secretary was invited to the meeting, only an Additional Secretary from the Transport Department was deputed to attend it.
According to the minutes of the meeting, Transport Department Additional Secretary P. Geetha, who attended the meeting, did not offer any opinion.
However, when contacted by this paper, Law Minister M. Vijayakumar said that the State Government had given its stand against imposing user fee at the meeting. But, it was not recorded in the minutes.
Vijayakumar also said that the State Government had now officially informed the Airports Authority of India (AAI) of its objection to the introduction of the user fee.
Meanwhile, the decision to introduce user fee has invited protests from various quarters. The Confederation of Kerala Tourism Industry has urged the AAI and the Union Government to revoke the decision.
The Chamber of Commerce - Thiruvananthapuram said in a statement that the user fee would badly affected the passenger traffic at the Thiruvananthapuram Airport as the passengers would opt for Nedumbassery Airport in Kochi, where there is no such fee.
The Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) took out a march to the AAI office in Thiruvananthapuram on Thursday to protest against the decision to introduce the user fee of Rs 755.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) also said in a statement that it would strongly oppose the decision to impose user fee.
14/05/10 ExpressBuzz

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Categories: Airports May 2010