india

Updated: Jul 22, 2019 17:33 IST

The Delhi International Airport Ltd (DIAL), which manages the Capital’s airport, has written to the ministry of civil aviation, saying it was one of the cheapest to land among the top 50 global airports last year.

DIAL’s chief executive officer Videh Kumar Jaipuriar’s letter to the secretary of the ministry of civil aviation is based on a recent study on aeronautical charges conducted by UK-based consultant Leigh Fisher.

The study says charges levied by operators were lowest at the Indira Gandhi International Airport, one of the busiest in the world, in 2018.

Jaipuriar has said airport charges constitute about 5-7% of the total cost of private Indian airlines, and with low aeronautical charges, the fare also remains low.

“Airlines levy many additional charges which are in addition to the base charges and are higher than the airport charges,” Jaipuriar said in his letter to civil aviation secretary on May 31.

A sample study for A 320 aircraft was undertaken to illustrate the variation in aeronautical charges across multiple Indian airports handling similar aircraft type, and DIAL’s landing and parking charges were the lowest across airports built under public-private partnership in India.

The move is seen as an attempt to tell the government that private airports are not costly, at a time when it is looking for more public-private partnership involvement in airport projects.

According to the study, while London LHR tops the list by levying the highest airport charges, Mumbai airport is 47th in the list followed by Frankfurt, Moscow and Delhi.

An airport official also said while most other airports levy high landing charges, Delhi airport’s charges are the lowest among the top global airports. Landing charges were reduced by 58% and 38% in international and domestic categories respectively in 2018, according to the official.

Another reason for low charges is a significant drop in aeronautical tariff rates – parking and housing charges by 71%, fuel throughput charges by 27%.