Welcome to India’s costliest airport

Welcome to India’s costliest airport
Saturday February 2 2008 12:40 IST

Ramu Patil

HURRY! GEMS Portfolio closing on 15th Feb'08

BANGALORE: Many of those eagerly waiting to take-off from the new airport in Bangalore, will be in for a rude shock when the airport begins operations within 60 days from now.

The IT City airport will be the costliest in India, perhaps one of the most expensive in the world.

Passengers flying out from Bangalore will have to shell out more money compared to those taking off from other cities to cover the same distances.

Even cargo prices are likely to go up by around five times.

This, many in the aviation sector, feel is not good for the industry’s growth and will discourage people, mostly lowcost airlines’ passengers from taking to the skies.

Domestic passengers, who are now paying Rs 225 as Passenger Service Fee (PSF) will have to pay an additional amount of Rs 675 as User Development Fee (UDF) to the Bangalore International Airport Authority Limited (BIAL).

For international passengers, UDF will be Rs 955 plus PSF of Rs 225. Not just that, passengers have to pay taxes also!

Once BIAL’s proposal on UDF gets the Civil Aviation Ministry’s nod, Bangalore will be the first airport in India to impose such a heavy fee on travellers.

It is not just UDF plus PSF; even the distance (airport is 30 km from the City) factor and connectivity issues are set to play spoilsport.

“To reach the airport, people coming from south Bangalore and other parts will have to spend a huge sum on taxi and after that all the fees.

In other words, reaching the airport and other fees put together will be more than the actual air ticket to some nearby cities,” said an expert.

“If that is the situation, many travelling to nearby places like Chennai and Hyderabad will opt for other modes of travel, like road or rail. That will hit the low cost airlines very hard,” he added.

As the work on widening of connecting roads is still taking time, people have to manage with the maddening traffic.

From many areas, its takes nearly two hours to reach the airport. The proposed high-speed train and other such proposals are yet to take-off from the drawing board.

Connectivity and distance factors will also hit the cargo industry.

“Once the airport operations shifts to Devenahalli, cost of cargo handling and transportation will go up by around five times,” said D V Prabhu, Bangalore Custom House Agents’ Association president.

“The Bangalore International Airport Authority Limited (BIAL) has not given importance to set up a cargo village at the airport and now they are drawing plans to set up offices for custom house agents,” said Prabhu.

Cargo operations are very important for airlines and if proper facilities are not made available for the cargo operations, the airlines may prefer other cities, as it will not be economically viable for them to operate from the City, said an expert.

Kalim Ali, president of Air Cargo Agents’ Association of India (ACAAI) Bangalore Region, said that BIAL needs to set up offices for around 250 agents and also needs to have a transit cargo facility.

“We are talking to BIAL in that regard and hopefully something will be come up by the time the airport will be operational.

Otherwise, it will be a very difficult situation from the perspective of the air cargo transportation,’ he added.