VIKANT SAHAY
vikant@herald-goa.com
PANJIM: Giving in to the pressure mounted by Goa Government and charter operators, the Airport Authority of India (AAI) late on Friday evening withdrew its circular dated December 30, 2014 imposing an exorbitant raise in slot allotment fee deposit and penalties on charter flights.
International chartered flight operators as well as Tourism Department of Goa were extremely worried over the fact that Airport Authority of India had raised the deposit amount for allotment of time slots for chartered flights. The amount was raised from Rs two lakh to a whopping Rs 25 lakh for operating between 26-50 flights. Additionally, a penalty clause for non-usage for each chartered flight to the tune of Rs one lakh per no show.
According to the new circular there is no penalty clause and the flight operators will have to pay a security deposit of Rs one lakh for 25 flights for the coming season and Rs two lakh for 26-50 flights and Rs five lakh for 51 flights or more.
The circular says that the applications will be processed between August 21 and 31, 2015 and no tourist charter operators or airline will be allowed to file any change in slots or new slots requested during this period.
Chairman of Airport Authority of India, R K Shrivastava told Herald, on the phone from New Delhi, “Yes, we have done it in the interest of the state of Goa.”
Airport Director of Dabolim, K S Rao said, “Whatever was done earlier, it has now been corrected and it was never used.”
According to the December circular, the Chartered companies would have been paying a minimum of Rs 25 lakh as deposit for up to 25 movements and Rs one crore for up to 75 movements.
COO of Chartered Flights, Sita Travels India, Ernest Dias told Herald, “This is wonderful news that the draconian circular has been withdrawn. We were waiting with baited breath to hear this. Last season, due to shortfall in tourists, we lost nearly 60 per cent of our business. It is a great relief for the travellers to Goa too as we have already seen that the Rouble has become very weak against the Dollar.”
Director of Goa Tourism, Ameya Abhaynkar, who is in Delhi, to meet officials of the Civil aviation and Tourism ministries told Herald, “The Goa Government and the private tourism industry had represented our view against the disproportionate increase in deposit fee by AAI. We moved the Civil Aviation Ministry and the Tourism Ministry in the Union Government and both the ministries intervened and resolved the issue for the betterment of Goa. We and all in the industry are very happy with this decision and we hope that more charters will bring in more tourists to Goa this year.”
