While the Civil Aviation Ministry, in the name of decongestion, has proposed to double landing, parking and navigation charges during peak hours at Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore airports, the Delhi High Court has taken strong exception to congestion charges already being levied by domestic airlines.

Hearing a PIL — filed by Delhi-based advocate Anoop Bagai — that challenged the legality of this charge, a bench of Justices Swatanter Kumar and H R Malhotra today expressed concern at this “passenger-unfriendly” move. To this, Additional Solicitor General P P Malhotra said the Ministry could not intervene in this as airlines have the freedom to levy “ticketing fee.”

The Court, however, did not accept this submission and asked the Ministry to “look into” the matter and come up with a detailed response at the next hearing on April 17. Domestic airlines, except for Indian, charge Rs 150 as congestion charge.

While Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel today sought to justify the Ministry’s proposal saying it was a “temporary” move, the fact is that the industry is all set to pass the burden to passengers. This will be in addition to the congestion charge.

“There is heavy congestion at Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore airports and they all are under tremendous pressure. Hiking of charges for peak-time operations is also only a temporary measure and will help till the capacity of these airports is upgraded to handle traffic volumes. Besides, there will be sops for those flying in non-peak hours,” said Patel on the margins of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) Navigation Systems Panel meeting in Delhi today.

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