Civil Aviation Minister fumes at congestion charge levy

Civil Aviation minister Praful Patel lashed out at airlines levying congestion charge of Rs 150 on all sectors while the problem of ATC delays is limited mainly to Delhi and Mumbai. Almost all domestic carriers, except Indian have been levying that fee citing the delays — and financial losses of Rs 2,500 for each minute of hovering — because of congestion at Metros airports. "If congestion is mainly in these two places, why are airlines levying the charge on all sectors? This is just a way of boosting their revenue. Traffic congestion in Delhi has improved now and Mumbai is using both runways simultaneously," Patel said. But he admitted that cess would have to be withdrawn by the airlines alone as the government "does not control fares". Even Indian was going to levy this charge but desisted from doing so after seeing the minister's stand. Patel's anger was mainly directed at full fare airlines as he said that low cost carriers in India don't have separate and cheaper airports for them.

In the west, no frills airlines have dedicated airports where the charges for airlines are much less than the airports for full cost ones. A low cost airline official justified the cess, saying; "Almost 60 % of all flights operating in India start their day from Delhi or Mumbai. A delay at the origin point means that the entire day's schedule goes haywire. While Delhi and Mumbai are the worst, congestion is also bad in other Metros. The delays are causing us huge losses. Hovering before getting a chance to land means burning fuel and crew expense." Meanwhile, on the issue of better airports in Chennai and Kolkata Patel said government had three options — existing ones be developed by the Airports Authority of India; new greenfield airports in both cities or take the Delhi, Mumbai way of having a JV modernise the airports there too.

visit us @ http://www.silkrouteholidays.com