'Pay airports, or cough up penalty'

This is what the aviation ministry will be telling airlines soon, after it implements a penalty system, to be imposed on all airlines which delay dues to airports

The Union Civil Aviation Ministry is working on new regulations that will help airports tackle errant airlines that regularly delay payment of their airport fees. When the new guidelines are in place, airlines will have to pay their respective airport fees on time, or pay a penalty.


The MiD DAY front page on May 28

A senior Civil Aviation Ministry official confirmed the move, telling MiD DAY, "The airport operators recently approached the Civil Aviation Ministry, asking for a solution to the problems posed by airlines who regularly pay their airport fees late.

In order to address this issue, we are preparing a draft that will ensure that the airlines pay their dues to the airport on time. In the event of a failure to do so, a penalty will be imposed on them in the form of a hike in the interest rates."

Sources in the ministry revealed that the ministry had been approached by the two private airport operators GVK and GMMR, which regulate operations at the busy airports of Mumbai, Bangalore, Delhi and Hyderabad.

It was also revealed that the biggest defaulter was none other than the national carrier Air India, which owes an astronomical sum of Rs 1,150 crore to the airports.

Airport charges
Airlines across the country have to pay different kinds of fees in order to gain access to the services offered by an airport some of these include airport development fee (ADF), user development fee (UDF) and passenger service fee (PSF).

These fees are collected directly from the passengers, and are indicated in the breakup of flight fare.u00a0 MiD DAY had earlier exposed how Air India had been defaulting payment over the last three months, even though the airport fees were being collected directly from passengers. ('Maharaja turns pauper,' May 28)