The MP high court has asked the state govt to explain why airlines operating from Jabalpur’s Dumna Airport are subjected to higher taxes and whether there is scope for a reduction. The query came during a hearing on a public interest litigation (PIL) regarding Jabalpur’s declining air connectivity.
Airline companies, in their response, said they were unable to operate more flights from Jabalpur due to “excessive” tax imposed on them.
Advocate Dinesh Upadhyay, appearing for the petitioner Nagrik Upbhokta Margdarshak Manch before the bench headed by Justice Sanjeev Sachdeva, said Air India in its reply in the case has said after a detailed survey, it was not in a position to operate flights from Jabalpur.
The charges levelled on airline companies at Dumna airport is higher than other places and if the airline companies pay this much of tax, they will have losses in operating flights from Jabalpur rather than hoping for any profit.
Air India further said that among 75 airports all across the country, the company has flights from 73 airports, Jabalpur is one of the two airports from which it doesn’t operate flights. Profit-loss calculation decides whether operating a flight from a place is viable or not.
The petitioner had contended that Jabalpur in the past had as many flights as Indore or Bhopal. There were flights to Mumbai, Pune, Kolkata, Bengaluru and some other places from Jabalpur. On-an-average, there used to be 15 flights from Jabalpur but it has reduced to 5 now. Poor air connectivity is a major factor affecting development of Jabalpur.
Source #TOI
