The Kannur international airport, gearing up for commercial flight operations in September, has decided to opt out of the bandwagon of regional flights under the Union government’s Ude Desh ka Aam Naagrik (UDAN).
A decision to this effect was taken at a board meeting of Kannur International Airport Limited (KIAL) chaired by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan at the Secretariat here on Thursday. The decision to withdraw from the UDAN scheme would be communicated officially to the Civil Aviation Ministry, official sources told The Hindu .
Signing of agreement
The decision to back out comes after signing the agreement in January between the Centre, State government and Airports Authority of India for inter and intra-State services from the State’s fourth international airport coming up near Mattannur.
The KIAL board gave its nod after it came to the conclusion that the three-year exclusive monopoly in the seven sectors under the UDAN scheme and Viability Gap Funding (VGF) of the State will seriously hamper domestic flight operations and that revenue generation will be hit.
KIAL, the operator of the airport, will not get any revenue from the domestic flights operated under the UDAN scheme as it cannot impose landing and parking, and terminal navigation landing charges on the airline in addition to discounts on route navigation facility.
The condition that VAT on Aviation Turbine Fuel (ATF) had to be lowered to 1% or less, providing security and fire services free of cost, and electricity, water and other utilities at substantially concessional rates to the UDAN flights turned the tables, official sources said.
Two Indian carriers, IndiGo and Spicejet, had announced 26 flights in 12 routes to Kannur under the UDAN scheme leaving only the Mumbai sector open for other carriers. By opting out of the scheme, all Indian carriers will be able to operate domestic flights to Kannur.
The KIAL board also discussed the reluctance of the Civil Aviation Ministry to give its nod for Point of Call status to Kannur for operating international flights. Already, the Chief Minister has taken up the issue at the highest level.
Pace of works
The pace of the works in the terminal building and the airport came up for review as the airport is bracing ahead for September commissioning.
Ministers for Revenue E. Chandrasekharan, Minister for Ports Kadannappally Ramachandran, Minister for Health K.K. Shylaja, KIAL MD V. Thulasidas and Directors M.A. Yussufali, Shamseer V.P. and K. Parvathy Ammal attended.
