Airlines meet Prime Minister, seek help in tiding over crisis

New Delhi: Problems may not be new for the Indian airlines. But, today, they got an opportunity to raise those at the highest level of the government.
Top executives of all the airlines, excluding Air India, discussed their problems with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who acknowledged the issues, saying he would take those up with the authorities concerned.
In a meeting held this morning, the airlines mentioned high tax on aviation turbine fuel (ATF), high airport charges, permission to fly on international routes and the ground handling policy as key concerns. Allowing foreign airlines to buy stake in Indian carriers was not discussed in this meeting.
“We raised our problems about high taxes on fuel, higher airport charges and allowing Indian carriers to fly international. The prime minister patiently listened and said he would discuss these issues with the civil aviation and finance ministries,” said an airline official present at the meeting, requesting not to be identified.
From the airlines’ side, Jet Airways Chairman Naresh Goyal, IndiGo Co-founder Rahul Bhatia and President Aditya Ghosh, GoAir Chairman Jeh Wadia, SpiceJet Chief Executive Officer Neil Mills and Kingfisher Airlines Chief Executive Officer Sanjay Agarwal attended the meeting. Kingfisher Airlines Chairman Vijay Mallya was not present.
The major concern for the airlines was high tax on ATF, which now constitutes around 50 per cent of their total operating cost, compared to 40 per cent six months back.
The average tax charged by states on ATF in India, at 24 per cent, is the second-highest in the world, next only to Bangladesh’s 27 per cent. The airline companies have been demanding that ATF be brought under the capital goods category. That would fix the taxes on ATF at four per cent.
27/11/11 Business Standard

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Categories: Indian Aviation- In General Nov 2011