Aviation ministry opposes UK's departure tax plan

New Delhi: The civil aviation ministry is against the proposal of the UK government to charge departure tax on airlines on the basis of the number of aircraft flying to and from the country, instead of the number of seats filled in every aircraft.
The prevalent practice is that airlines have to pay between Rs 4,000 and Rs 4,500 per filled seat as departure tax. Meanwhile, London’s airports have started charging £416 for using its VIP lounge at Terminal 5, the newest such facility. “There is no such charge levied at any other airport across the world,” said a senior ministry official.
Departure tax being charged on per-aircraft basis would mean that an airline would have to pay for all the seats available in an aircraft and not just for the filled seats. Even if the load factor for an airline is below flying capacity of its aircraft, it would have to shell out for the vacant seats. This would ultimately increase the fare on the routes.
“...How can one be charged for unfilled seats? It will be suicidal for airlines during non-peak seasons when the aircraft go vacant. ..” the official said on condition of anonymity.
The three Indian carriers — Air India, Jet Airways and Kingfisher Airlines — have 17 flights to London every week, all to Heathrow Airport.
23/08/20 Mihir Mishra/Business Standard

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Categories: airports aug 2010, Foreign Aug 2010