Devanahalli airport may fuel economy travel

Devanahalli airport may fuel economy travel
By Hemanth C S,DH News Service,Bangalore:
Heres one reason why air passengers might feel that the Bengaluru International Airport at Devanahalli could be cheaper when compared to the GMR promoted Hyderabad international airport.

The fuel throughput fee fixed for aircraft at the Bengaluru airport is only Rs 700 per kilo litre of aviation fuel. This is not only a lot lesser than that to be levied for the Hyderabad airport, but also considerably lower than in most existing airports of the country, barring New Delhi and Mumbai.

Throughput fee is the payment made by fuel suppliers to the airport developer. The supplier will pass on the additional charge of throughput fee to the airlines, which, in turn, will pass the burden on to their passengers.
The airport developer auctions and hands over new fuel stations and other infrastructure facilities at airports to oil companies for which the throughput fees is paid.

“Every qualified fuel supplier will be able to sell fuel to airlines at the new Airport. This allows the airlines to choose the supplier of their choice. Since fuel prices have become one of the major cost factors of airline operation, airports have to offer airlines competitive fuel price structures in order to be an attractive destination for them. The implementation of a truly open access model like this is therefore of strategic importance for the new airport,” officials told Deccan Herald.

Devanahalli airport’s fuel throughput fee rate of Rs 700 is much lower than the Rs 2,170 per kilo litre of aviation fuel proposed by the Hyderabad airport promoters, who recently informed oil companies of their throughput charge.

The airline operators, especially the no-frills airlines have been complaining that their profit margins had declined due to the ever increasing Aviation Turbine Fuel rates and that they would be hiking the fare rates. Domestic airlines are collecting Rs 1,600 as fuel surcharge on every ticket.

BIAL’s move to keep a low fuel throughput fee should come as a surprise, since it had decided to charge user development fee of Rs 675 and Rs 955 for domestic and international passengers respectively.