Air congestion charges hike: Govt may provide incentives instead
09 Mar 2007
New Delhi: The ministry of civil aviation has indicated that it would do a rethink on its controversial announcement to hike airport congestion charges a day after the Delhi High Court pulled it up. The High Court made an observation that the move appeared to be "passenger-unfriendly," and accordingly asked the Government to provide a detailed response.
In response to queries from a national daily, civil aviation minister, Praful Patel, said that no decision on the matter had been taken. He also clarified that the plan to double charges between 7-10 am and 6-8 pm and halve them between midnight and 5 am was just a "proposal."
He did mention, however, that the ministry was considering providing incentives for non-peak hour operations.
Just a couple of days earlier the civil aviation secretary had announced that peak-hour landing, parking and navigation rates for airlines would be doubled from March 25.
