COIMBATORE: The
Tamil Nadu government has implemented its promise to offer a
concession on
VAT levied on
aviation fuel for flights based in tier II cities.
The state government on Tuesday night issued an order stating that flights which land after 11pm and depart before 7am and park for at least three hours at the airport will have to pay VAT of only 1% on their aviation fuel prices, instead of the usual 29%. This concession is available only at airports which saw a traffic of less than 50 lakh passengers last year.
In May, chief minister Edappadi K Palaniswami announced the government’s plan to implement a concession on VAT for flights halting at night in tier II airports to promote more
base flights in smaller airports in the state. However, with the order not yet on paper and the announcement not being implemented, more airlines were yet to opt for base flights in airports in the state.
Airport officials and frequent flyers hope this will prompt more airlines to choose Coimbatore as their base, thus enabling them to operate more early morning flights to metro cities. Despite the city having nine parking bays to offer, only one of them is occupied.
Indigo Airlines is the only airlines which operates halts in Coimbatore and operates an early morning flight to Chennai and a late-night return flight from the metro city. Coimbatore International Airport director N Mahalingam welcomed this decision stating that this concession is a strong incentive for more flights to use the airport’s parking facilities.
“While parking charges in Coimbatore and Chennai are similar, Coimbatore airport’s landing charges are more than 30% lesser. Now with this VAT concession also announced, airlines will save a lot of money by landing and parking their flights here,” said Mahalingam. “This concession will definitely play a major role in bringing more base flights to the city,” he added.
Frequent flyers and industrialists hope this announcement will bring in better connectivity to the metro cities, especially early morning flights.
“We need more morning flights to Chennai because our first flight is at 5.15am and the next flight is only at 11am. Fares for flights out of the city have also sky rocketed to Rs 6,000 to Rs 7,000 for a round trip, which is expensive,” said Mr Ravi Sam, past chairman, CII Tamil Nadu State Council.
“We also need flights to New Delhi, Bangalore and Mumbai that make us land in those cities by 8.30am. Airlines should know that in Coimbatore, despite high fares, flights always enjoy an occupancy of more than 90%. This concession and other conditions are ideal for airport authorities and governments to lobby and bring in other airlines like Vistara and GoAir to fill the gap made by Jet Airways which pulled out two morning flights from the city,” he added.
(Representative image)