Bangalore airport faces GMR heat

Bangalore airport faces GMR heat
Tuesday, March 04, 2008 04:08 IST
DNA

Hyderabad airport developer to scrap user fee for domestic passengers

HYDERABAD/BANGALORE: The management of the Bangalore International Airport Ltd (BIAL) is likely to come under pressure to follow GMR Hyderabad International Airport Ltd’s (GHIAL) model to spare domestic passengers from the contentious user development fee (UDF).

GHIAL on Monday decided to levy $25 (about Rs 1,000) as UDF on international passengers from the new airport at Shamshabad, which is scheduled to open from the midnight of March 15.

BIAL, which begins operations from March 30, will not follow a cross-subsidisation tariff policy. It will be charge a UDF of Rs675 on domestic passengers and Rs955 on international passengers.

BIAL chief executive officer (CEO) Albert Brunner asserted that it would not be fair to levy charges on international passengers and spare the domestic passengers when both of them would be using the same infrastructure.

“The International Air Transport Association (IATA) can question airports if they charge a fee to international passengers and nothing to domestic passengers when both are using same facilities,” reasoned Brunner.

However, despite the BIAL chief’s refusal to oblige, domestic carriers are gearing up to lobby for a waiver of the fee on the domestic sector.

“The question is: What impact such a move (charging UDF from domestic passengers), would have on business, especially on short haul routes. Both (airport and airlines) would be at a disadvantage (business-wise). We have requested both airports to take a long-term view on this,” said Deccan Aviation chief financial officer (CFO) Ramki Sundaram.