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NEW
DELHI: Most Indian carriers, barring Air India, have decided to impose a
congestion surcharge of Rs 150 on all domestic flights.
Full service carriers; Jet
Airways, Air Sahara, Kingfisher and Indian as well as low cost airlines such as
SpiceJet, Air Deccan, Indigo and GoAir shall be imposing the surcharge on all
domestic routes starting from December 1. The decision was taken at a recent
meeting of the Federation of Air-lines (FIA), which consists of scheduled Indian
carriers
While Kingfisher and
Jet Airways will be imposing the surcharge from Friday onwards, industry sources
said other airlines have also agreed to follow suit. Ticket prices of all the
airlines would soon rise by Rs 150.
On the average it cost about
Rs 1,000 per seat kilometer to airlines and during congestion airline firms
loose about 15% of this cost, which works out to around Rs 150. On the basis of
these calculations, airlines have decided to impose a congestion surcharge of Rs
150.
Indian carriers have been
incurring huge losses due to the delays that they have to face at airports,
especially at busy airports like Delhi and Mumbai. The proposed surcharge is one
of the initiatives that the aviation industry has taken to tide over mounting
losses. Though the Indian aviation sector is growing rapidly, most airlines have
been suffering huge losses which are expected to touch about Rs 2,200 in the
next one year alone.
While
major congestion happens at high-density metro routes such as from Delhi to
Mumbai, airline companies have decided to impose surcharge on all the routes.
Some industry heads question the idea of congestion surcharge being imposed on
both high-density and low-density routes. “The rationale may be that
Indian carriers would want to recover losses that they have been incurring in
the past,” industry sources
said.
But for consumers this
would mean higher prices for all the routes. The congestion surcharge would be
over and above the Rs 750 fuel surcharge that is presently levied on tickets.
This is the second fare hike imposed by airlines who have recently formed the
industry association, FIA.
Earlier, all the airline
companies have raised air fares by 3-4% on November 16. The present hike in
fares comes even after the prices of the single highest cost factor of airlines
- aviation turbine fuel - have come down by about 16% over the past two
months.
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