More hikes in airfares as oil Co raises ATF prices

New Delhi, Oct 1: The fares of all major airlines have started raising from oct 1 as state owned oil companies hiked the price of Aviation Turbine Fuel (AFT) or Jet Fuel by 1.5 pecrcent.

According to an official of Indian Oil Corporation the Aviation Turbine Fuel (ATF) price at Delhi's T3 airport was hiked by Rs 899 per kilolitre to Rs 58,578 per kilolitre.

Earlier, on Sept 16, major retailers of oil including Indian Oil Corporation, Hindustan Petroleum and Bharat Petroleum had raised jet fuel price by 2.5 percent. ATF in Mumbai airport was hiked by Rs 907 per kilolitre more at Rs 59,359 per kilolitre against the earlier price Rs 58, 452.31 per kilolitre. But the ATF prices will vary from airport to airport as the local tax or VAT are different across the country.

Meanwhile, Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) asked the Civil Aviation Ministry to take some step to provide some relif to air travellers ahead of festive seasons. Further, DGCA mentioned that there is not any "flexible mechanism" that can control air fares. The fair monitoring committe of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation has been examinig the fare data on daily basis to curb the ATF prices.

Expressing concern over the hike in ATF prices, the Civil Aviation Minister Vayalar Ravi said he would write to state governments to reduce sales tax on ATF.

"ATF price is a major challenge facing the aviation industry. ATF is going up because of increase in crude prices" he added.

OneIndia News