Civil aviation minister Praful Patel’s recent statement to curb private aircraft movements at Mumbai airport has elicited mixed reaction from the general aviation (non-scheduled operators) industry. They are amused and they wonder if it is economics that has made the minister talk of such measures.
Almost 50-60 general aviation (GA) flights take-off and arrive at Mumbai airport daily. Patel thinks these are a hindrance to the increasing number of airline flights and therefore wants to reduce their number as the airport is getting saturated.
However, non-scheduled operators (NSOPs) have questions to ask. “If they want to reduce GA flights which are used by corporates, why are they allowing corporates to import planes?” asked one of them. “And they are also imposing high customs duty on them.”
Another argues that the measure is more commerce-driven. “The time taken by an airliner and a charter plane to take off/land is the same. But an airline plane fetches more landing and parking charges compared to a GA aircraft. So, this might also be a tactic to help the airport operator make more money,” the NSOP said.
For instance, the landing and parking charges for a Boeing 777 plane which weighs 200 tonnes is about Rs253 plus Rs30.80 per 1,000 kg in excess of 20,000 kg on domestic flights. It is Rs4,521 plus Rs61.60 per 1,000 kg in excess of 1,00,000 kg on international flights. While the charges for a corporate jet which weighs around 20 tonne is Rs99 plus Rs15.40 per 1,000kg in excess of 10,000 kg.
“So if the airport operator can earn almost 10 times more from the airlines why would the policy makers favour us,” he asks.
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