The Hindu Business Line : Airlines: `Cooperative conflict' is the way to go

It is a charge levied by the airline itself, because there is a lot of congestion and over-crowding at airports which results in aircraft having to hover in the air or wait on the tarmac with their engines on, ready for take-off.

Because of this, gallons of fuel is getting burned every day.

Hence, the congestion charge.

How is an airline able to get away it?

By entering into a pact with other airlines that they too will levy exactly the same charge.

A quick survey revealed that Spice, Air Deccan and Jet all levy the charge, though only the Web sites of the first two tell passengers about it.

The pact extends to all flights at all times, even though only a few are subject to losses due to fuel burn.

An amount of Rs 150 may not seem like much. But multiply it by an average of 10,000 passengers travelling every day of the year, and it adds Rs 55 crore to the kitty.

Fuel surcharge

As for the Rs 750 fuel surcharge, when airlines compete aggressively on fares, it is strange that they have all, on their own, arrived at a decision on the exact quantity on fuel surcharge.

And why is it that the surcharge on SpiceJet, Air Deccan and Jet Air flights from Ahmedabad to Delhi is the same as the surcharge on flights from Mumbai to Delhi, or, for that matter, from Chennai to Rajahmundry. Kingfisher is a different kettle of fish.

Though it does levy one or more surcharges when it chooses, it does not seem to have given a formal undertaking to do so.

Besides, its `basic fares' vary so widely, that even with surcharges, it ends up offering much the same rates as those offered by low-cost carriers; more often that one would imagine.

A search at 12.30 p.m. on January 6, 2007 for a January 11 Mumbai-Delhi, turned up a Kingfisher flight for Rs 2,975 (inclusive of all taxes/surcharges), as against an exactly identical Rs 2,949 for SpiceJet and Air Deccan, Rs 6,115 for Jet Airways.