AAI seeks recall of free parking to smaller aircrafts

Aiming at increasing its revenues, the Airports Authority of India is seeking withdrawal of the free landing and parking of small aeroplanes at all airports across the country.

Aiming at increasing its revenues, the Airports Authority of India (AAI) is seeking withdrawal of the free landing and parking of small aeroplanes at all airports across the country.

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The AAI has written to the Civil Aviation Ministry that the waiver on landing and parking charges, offered to airlines operating aircraft with a maximum seating capacity of less than 80 passengers, be done away with, according to sources.

The sources claimed that the exemption was being misused by airlines, which were flying small planes to airports where AAI had invested large amounts on infrastructure to make operations of larger aircrafts possible.

In this context, they gave examples of airports in cities like Vadodara where infrastructure for large aircraft operations existed but most airlines chose to fly smaller planes to avoid paying these fees.

The sources felt that this exemption was "distorting the economics of flying".

In return, the AAI has suggested that the Government could consider providing fiscal incentives to small aircrafts for operations to those airports which did not have facilities to handle larger aircraft, they said.