The Board of Airlines
(BOA) representatives, with a membership of nearly 40 airlines, will soon hold a crucial meeting to
chalk out a common strategy to deal with the hefty hike of 344 per
cent in airport
charges which has already made major airlines
re-work the investment plans and strategy towards India, a
move that could impact Delhi’s chances of emerging as an aviation hub.
“Unjust and
arbitrary”
About 10 airlines
have already filed a petition in the Delhi High Court against the steep hike in airport
charges and the BOA meeting is being held to enlist the support of other airlines in
an effort to bring them together on a single platform to contest this
“arbitrary and unjust” hike in charges. Lufthansa group airlines
(including Austrian and Swiss International), Air France, KLM, United and Virgin are part of the
petition.
These airlines
carry about 30 per cent of the outbound traffic from India.
On the issue of hiked up
charges, Christopher Fordyce, Regional Commercial Manager (South Asia) – British Airways
PLC, said: “In an already difficult economic environment for airlines
any increase in costs will have a direct impact on future growth. Such an
exceptional increase in operating costs will make it difficult for airlines to
invest in their network and services in India. British Airways
constantly reviews its operations across the world to ensure that operating on
any route makes viable business sense, and increasing costs to such levels will
bring India
into sharp focus.”
Lufthansa Director
(South Asia) Axel Hilgers termed the hike in charges as unreasonable and
unacceptable.
“A normal hike
according to inflation index is fine but such a massive hike is unacceptable.
It is too much and burns us to the utmost limit. The BOA will be meeting this
month to work on a strategy,” he said.
“Today it is Delhi,
tomorrow Mumbai….”
Asked if Lufthansa
will pull out
of
India, Mr. Hilgers said at present the airline has no such plan but would need to fight it
out. “Today it is Delhi and tomorrow it will be Mumbai where a similar problem
could crop up. This could kill Delhi’s plan to become an aviation hub. The airlines
will be forced to re-work their strategy and look for other options in the Gulf
countries, South-East Asia or even Istanbul which is also emerging as a
contender on this front,” he said.
International Air Travel
Association Director-General and CEO Tony Tyler had also slammed the hike in airport
charges stating that they were clearly unacceptable.
“The Delhi
International
Airport Limited (DIAL) has to pay 46 per cent of its
revenue to the government which was neither in the interest of the airlines
nor the airport,”
he had said recently in New Delhi.
http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-newdelhi/article3752542.ece
