The Hindu Business Line : CIAL move to reduce usage charges

The CIAL Managing Director, Mr Sriram Bharat, said that the company had already instituted a study on how best its available space in the spacious airport complex could be profitably marketed.

The study report, expected to be available within a year, was aimed at raising its non-aeronautical revenue substantially. This could help bring down the airport’s existing usage charges, including landing fee levied on airlines. Already major players in the business sector had come forward to put up hoardings, kiosks and stalls within the airport complex, he added.

He told mediapersons that the duty-free shop at the airport had been contributing substantially to CIAL’s revenue and its turnover was scaling up over the past few years, increasing by 43 per cent as compared to the previous year. This was the result of the cheapest price offered by the shop, coupled with several innovative promotional schemes made available by various business participants.

He claimed that the Kochi duty-free shop had topped in sales among similar shops in the whole country. The direct involvement of the CIAL in the duty-free segment had helped it sell products at the cheapest price as a result of which the volume in business was substantially up.

The two-month long promotional scheme — ‘Ee Onam Nalla Onam’— contest brought to consumers by Diageo in association with CIAL, Samsung India and Alpha Kreol, which runs the duty-free shop, during August-September had generated a record revenue of $1.63 million from Indian international passengers, with a single day sales on August 24 breaking all records with sales worth $64,000.

The average purchase per passenger at the duty-free shop was $54 which was also the highest in the region, he said.