The Hindu Business Line : BIA users worried over higher costs for services

Bangalore, March 17 Bangalore’s new airport, Bengaluru International Airport (BIA), is ready to take off on May 11 but neither the airlines nor the travellers seem excited or enthused about using the city’s biggest and most prestigious infrastructure showpiece.

Their agony is over the higher cost they would pay on all fronts to what one called “a new private-sector monopoly”; and in some cases, 30 per cent royalty to the sub-concessionaires for virtually every requirement at the airport.

“This is the cost of getting an international face to your services,” said one affected party. The passengers’ load will rise immediately with the user development fee (domestic Rs 650/international Rs 950) in addition to the Rs 225 they now pay at HAL airport as passenger service; and the cost of transiting almost 3-4 times longer from most points to Devanahalli, 40 km away.

The operator, Bangalore International Airport Ltd, has halved the user fee for two months while the Ministry of Civil Aviation has suggested a lower domestic levy. BIAL’s CEO, Mr Albert Brunner, had earlier justified the levy; the promoters after all had to recover their costs, having invested nearly Rs 2,500 crore in the first phase, he had said.

The airlines, for now, are not going to be too badly off by the transition; they have struck fair deals for themselves on ground handling. They also got the operator to keep the same landing and parking fees as at HAL airport. But BIAL may raise the landing fees in six months.

Ground handling

“The airlines got a good deal at BIA and are quite happy with it,” said an aviation industry expert familiar with the developments. “As such, they may not be shelling out more than what they are already doing at HAL”: around Rs 5,000-17,000 for domestic flights; and $800-4,000 for international flights.

Operator BIAL did not respond to repeated queries on any of its pricing, nor about how the 40-day delay to its start had affected it.

BIAL has contracted out the ground handling services to two agencies – AI-SATS (a 50:50 venture of Air India and Singapore Airport Terminal Services) and GlobeGround, a Lufthansa associate.

The airlines pay them for the services availed – ranging from terminal check-ins, baggage management; ramp handling and guidance of air crew to cabin cleaning. The two ground-handlers in turn pay an annual guaranteed ‘royalty’ to BIAL.

Airlines pay the owner/operator landing-parking fees based on the aircraft’s fully loaded weight. The fees now range from Rs 8,000-10,000 per domestic landing of an A320; to double that per foreign arrival; and up to 80,000-Rs 1.5 lakh for an international Boeing 747-400 arrival depending on its size and duration of stay.

An industry source said the charges so far have been more or less uniform across the AAI/government-owned airports.

Airlines also have to pay RNFC/TNLC (route navigation facility charge-terminal navigation landing charge) to the agency doing the air traffic control. The rate hovers 10-15 per cent over the landing fee and is based on the distance travelled by the aircraft. At Devanahalli, the Airports Authority of India takes over the ATC and will gain from both RNFC and TNLC. AAI is also 13 per cent stake-holder in the new airport.

Deccan, for example, pays handling charges of Rs 15,000-Rs 18,000 per Airbus A320 flight; and RNFC/TNLC of Rs 20,000-30,000.

Capt Gopinath, who is among those pressing for the retention of the HAL airport for some short-hauls, said he feared that the landing fee alone could increase 3-5 fold.

The HAL airport which manages 315 flights a day generates about Rs 250 crore each annually from parking fee and RNFC/TNLC. BIA will be handling 450 daily movements or 35 per cent growth from Day 1.

The in-flight catering bill comes with 30 per cent royalty to the two concessionaires – Taj-SATS and LSG-Sky Chefs. “Airlines are not allowed any facility, phone service provider’s choice or VIP lounge; everything is BIAL’s choice at a huge fee. The disadvantage is that airlines can no longer seek redressal from the Government,” was another complaint.

With additional inputs from K. Giriprakash

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