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Airport user’s fee may be reintroduced

NEDUMBASSERY: Faced with stiff competition from the newly launched greenfield airports at Bangalore and Hyderabad, the Cochin International Airport Limited (CIAL) is toying with the idea of bringing back user’s fee, which, till the time it was stopped, was a major source of income for the airport company.

According to a senior airport official, the proposal to reinstate user’s fee would be a major topic of discussion at the director board meeting of the company to be held at Thiruvananthapuram on Wednesday. “In fact, the board has been considering the proposal for sometime now,” he said.

The airport had charged a fee of Rs.500 from all departing international passengers till it was withdrawn during the tenure of Oommen Chandy as the Chief Minister.

The argument behind the decision was that the airport had turned profitable and therefore it was not proper to ‘exploit’ the passengers.

However, the last annual general body meeting witnessed heated arguments over the issue with the shareholders clearly divided on re-imposition of user’s fee. The Bangalore and the Hyderabad airports are levying hefty user’s fee from departing international passengers. It is also learnt that the Bangalore airport is even planning to charge Rs. 750 on departing domestic passengers.

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Airport user’s fee may be reintroduced

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