Bhopal: The airline operators reiterated their old demand of reducing value added tax (VAT) on air fuel to increase air connectivity between Bhopal and other cities. They also launched a veiled attack on the government saying that landing and parking approvals are not granted in time hampering increase in number of flights from the state capital.
The issues were taken up during a round table discussion with representatives of state government and The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) on Wednesday. In the meeting airline operators and the state government put up their counter claims. While state government claimed in a presentation that it was providing best facilities to the operators, the representatives from Indigo airlines and Jet airways countered that their application for landing and parking approval lies pending with the authorities. That was also the main hurdle to begin new flight, they added.
New flights are expected by Indigo and Jet airways from Bhopal by October this year. The plan for beginning the operations to cities like Raipur, Hyderabad, Pune, Chennai, Bangalore, Kolkata and others were discussed. “The state government should reduce the 25 percent VAT charged on the fuel,” demanded the airline operators. The major airline players of the country discussed the challenges in increasing connectivity from the Bhopal airport. During discussion the reduction of tax on fuel was among the major demand as it costs about 40 percent of the total operational costs.
The airline operators also demanded incentives from the government for operating flights from Bhopal airport till the market for aviation wouldn’t become feasible. The operators also demanded facility of night parking at Bhopal airport. The Indore airport is operational for 24 hours but it doesn’t have a single authorised vendor for providing catering support. This issue was also raised by the airline operators during the meeting.
The representative of the government assured the airlines of every possible support including incentives, subsidy and other facilities at the Bhopal airport. The meeting was attended by BP Singh, Chief Secretary, Hariranjan Rao, principal secretary tourism department, Anil Vikram, Bhopal airport director and representatives of Jet airways, Air India, SpiceJet, Air vistara, Indigo and others. At present Bhopal has only five flights schedule in the morning and five in the evening while the day remains idle for the airport.
More cargo movement demanded
The operators demanded supply of cargo from representative of CII so that flight operator could further sustain their operations. Scene in cargo movement from Bhopal is quiet encouraging. The cargo movement increased from 867 tonnes in the year 2013-14 to 1153 tonnes in 2017-18.Number of passengers too increased from 4.26 lakhs in 2013-14 to 7.19 lakhs in the year 2017-18.
