GMR to charge US$25 per passenger, reveals Male President’s Office

Male: India’s GMR Infrastructure will take a service charge of US$25 per passenger once it takes over Male International Airport, the President’s Office revealed Sunday.
GMR won the bid to build, operate, modernise, and expand the airport via its consortium formed with Malaysia Airports Holdings. The company proposed to pay US$78 million (almost Rf1 billion) upfront, one percent of the total profit in the first year (until 2014) and 10 percent of the profit from 2015 to 2035. It also agreed to pay 15 percent of fuel trade revenues in the first four years and 27 percent from 2015 to 2035.
A hasty function organised by the President’s Office Sunday to sign the agreement with GMR was postponed "a few hours" and, later, a day amid resistance from opposition parties.
Press Secretary Mohamed Zuhair said that the US$25 airport development service charge was an addendum to the US$18 tax passed by the parliament.
“This is a service charge, same as that charged by other companies for services like electricity and water. It is an income for GMR. Even if GMR takes over the operations of the airport, the US$18 tax and profits from in-flight catering and Hulhule Island Hotel would come to the government,” he said.
Zuhair stressed that the government would still control aeronautics fees while GMR determines charges for non-aeronautics like fuel trade. Maldives National Defence Force (MNDF) would continue to oversee airport security, he added.
28/06/10 Haveeru Online, Male

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Categories: Airports Jun 2010, Foreign Jun 2010, New Jun 2010