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Varada Bhat

Mumbai, March 18 Kingfisher Airlines is in talks with the GVK-led Mumbai International Airport (MIAL) over repayment of Rs 19.70-crore dues for a host of overheads relating to landing, parking, route navigation levy and terminal charges.

Sources say that as part of this endeavour, it has kicked off the exercise with a “substantial part-payment”.

MIAL’s letter dated March 7, which is in the possession of Business Line, says that it would “be constrained to deal with Kingfisher Airlines on a cash-and-carry basis from March 11” if the latter did not clear the dues.

Sources said that MIAL did not follow up on this ultimatum and extended the payment period instead.

“We regret to inform you that despite constant follow-up and reminders, we are unable to resolve this perennial impediment towards settlement of dues that have been defaulted in terms of timely payment,” the letter stated.

The airline’s low-cost subsidiary, Kingfisher Red, has also been mentioned as owing Rs 1.35 crore. “In view of the current circumstances, Kingfisher Airlines has to submit its bank guarantee and has to liquidate its dues,” it added.

A spokesman for the airline dismissed the issue as “complete nonsense” in an e-mail response while GVK maintained that “as a matter of policy, we do not comment on commercial issues between MIAL and airlines”.

MIAL had, last year, almost doubled counter charges in the airport terminals to around Rs 13,000 from Rs 6,000 and hiked aeronautical charges such as landing, parking and route navigation by around 10 per cent. For instance, an empty Airbus A-320 plane which weighs around 42 tonnes pays Rs 9,394 a landing at the Mumbai airport while parking charges are around Rs 230/hour.

Sources at the airport said that the hike in fees had not gone down very well with the airlines which could now lead to a round of negotiations on pruning them to acceptable levels.

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