India sore over UK move to tax airlines on seat basis

The UK government’s move to charge airlines even on empty seats has not gone down well with the Indian civil aviation ministry. The UK authorities have proposed that every airline from across the world flying there should be taxed on the number of seats instead of passengers carried by them.
“This is just not possible. We are not the only one opposing the idea. We have asked the Indian high commission in London to give us a report on the exact proposal, then only we would take up the issue,” an aviation ministry said.
The UK levy is christened as London departure tax that varies between Rs 4,500 to Rs 7,500 per passenger, depending on economy or business class. Currently, domestic carriers Air India (AI), Jet Airways and Kingfisher fly to UK.
While Air India has 17 weekly flights to London from Delhi and Mumbai, Jet has 21 flights a week, two from Mumbai and one from Delhi every day. Kingfisher has 11 weekly flights to London. The average load factor on this route hovers around 70 per cent for all the carriers. The ministry official said even if taxes are levied on reciprocal basis, it would impact domestic carriers.
12/08/10 Parul Chhaparia/mydigitalfc.com

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Categories: Foreign Aug 2010