The Hindu : Front Page : Peak hour airport charges may go up in three airports

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Mar 06, 2007
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Peak hour airport charges may go up in three airports

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: Faced with congestion in the airspace over Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore, the Government is considering hiking the airport charges for airlines which operate flights during peak hours and slashing them by half during non-peak timings.

The higher charges are likely to come into effect during the summer schedule, beginning March 25, Civil Aviation Secretary Ashok Chawla told reporters here on Monday. There was no move to increase the charges for the other airports.

"We are trying to work out a system of incentives or disincentives for airlines operating services during peak hours [7 to 10 a.m. and 6 to 10 p.m.]. This will be a short-term measure," said Mr. Chawla, who took charge as Civil Aviation Secretary a month ago.

He indicated that the airport charges, including landing and navigation charges, could even be doubled during peak hours and halved between midnight and 5 a.m. Preliminary discussions were held with the Director-General of Civil Aviation and the Airports Authority of India chief on decongesting the three airports.

Mounting delays

With the Delhi and Mumbai airports handling 30-35 landings every hour during peak time, on average an aircraft has to wait for 30-40 minutes before landing, burning fuel, let alone delays which have a cascading effect on subsequent flights.

For a medium capacity Boeing 737 or Airbus A-320, the fuel cost is nearly Rs. 70,000 if it hovers at a height of not more than 10,000 feet for 30 minutes. Landing charges for this type of aircraft are between Rs. 12,000 and 14,000.

Private domestic carriers told The Hindu that some crucial "practical and operational" issues would have to be sorted out before the Ministry increased the airport charges.

Private airlines are already collecting Rs. 150 a ticket as congestion charge.

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