Holbrooke flight delayed for non-payment of fees: Wiki

New Delhi: The US embassy faced a difficult time when a top US diplomat’s government aircraft was held on the tarmac at the Defence airport in Palam Air Base for non-payment of airport fees. A peeved US embassy had then proposed that the US government may consider cancellation of a high-level visit to India to illustrate that India “will pay a price” for failing to extend courtesy to US government aircraft.
Special Representative (Af-Pak) Richard Holbrooke’s departure from the IAF’s base in March, 2009 was delayed as the US government aircraft carrying him did not have requisite clearances, revealed a US embassy cable released by WikiLeaks.
The aircraft was held following a change in the External Affairs Ministry’s policy in 2007, which directed all the US government aircraft visiting India, without any explicit invitation, to pay airport fees related to parking, landing and navigation. The flight was released following personal intervention of a top MEA official.
20/09/11 Smita Aggarwal/Indian Express

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Categories: airports Sep 2011, Foreign Sep 2011