Few to fly: The Calcutta airport

Calcutta, Aug. 16: A survey has shown that the rate of domestic passengers flying to and from Calcutta has dipped because of rising air fares in the last two months — a direct fallout of the increase in aviation turbine fuel price.

The survey conducted by the Airports Authority of India revealed that in the last three years, the airport saw the footfall grow by 20 to 25 per cent in the first four months of the financial year, but this year in the same period, the increase has been around 8 to 10 per cent.

“There has been a sharp decline in the rate at which passengers are flying in and out of Calcutta. The report has been sent to the headquarters in Delhi,” a senior airport official said today. “The AAI will do a macro analysis.”

The airport authority officials said the factor responsible for the dipping passenger graph was the near 20 per cent rise in domestic fares in the last two months. Also, some private airlines such as Kingfisher-Deccan and IndiGo scrapped flights to and from Calcutta.

“Both these factors can be attributed to the increase in aviation turbine fuel prices,” the official said.

In June, the Kingfisher-Deccan group suspended three flights within a week of fuel prices going up. IndiGo, which had started the first flight from Calcutta to Goa, withdrew the flight.

In the first week of May, the price of aviation turbine fuel was $120 a litre. By July- end, it was $147 a litre.

All airlines increased their fuel surcharge by 10-15 per cent after the fuel price went up. For a long-haul flight over 750km, a passenger now pays Rs 1,000 more in the minimum-fare bracket.

International passengers have been marginally affected as the flights refuel outside India. “The international flights refuel outside India and so the rise in costs has not been so steep for the passengers,” an airport official pointed out.

The number of domestic passengers that Netaji Subhas Chandra Base Airport sees each day is around 7,000 and those who take international flights number around 1,500.

“The fuel prices and the lean season have affected the passenger load. Only in some international sectors such as South East Asia and London, the load factor has increased,” said an official of the Airlines Operators’ Committee.

“The tourism industry has been hit as fewer people are flying. Even the bookings for Puja are not picking up as it generally does from August,” said Anil Punjabi, chairman (east), Travel Agents Federation of India.