Chennai: Flying out of the city could get expensive if the Airports Authority of India (AAI) sticks to its rent revision on land used by airlines to park their equipment like step ladders, baggage trolleys, aircraft pushback vehicles and shuttle buses. The public sector operator has increased the annual rent by 300%, from 2,000 to 7,500 per square foot.
Irked by the hike sans improvement in facilities at the, many airlines have protested. AAI is sticking sticks to its decision, but negotiations are on.
This is the steepest hike ever; rents used to be increased by 10% every year. Airlines which have their own ground handling teams use 13,000sqft to 21,000sqft in the operations side of the , where planes are handled. This means annual rents of 2.6 crore to 4.2 crore, which would now go up to 9.75 crore to 15.75 crore. "This is going to push up our operational costs. This may force us to pass on the burden to passengers because all airlines are going through a tough phase," said an airline official.
07/12/14 V Ayyappan/Times of India
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Irked by the hike sans improvement in facilities at the, many airlines have protested. AAI is sticking sticks to its decision, but negotiations are on.
This is the steepest hike ever; rents used to be increased by 10% every year. Airlines which have their own ground handling teams use 13,000sqft to 21,000sqft in the operations side of the , where planes are handled. This means annual rents of 2.6 crore to 4.2 crore, which would now go up to 9.75 crore to 15.75 crore. "This is going to push up our operational costs. This may force us to pass on the burden to passengers because all airlines are going through a tough phase," said an airline official.
07/12/14 V Ayyappan/Times of India
