Kingfisher, Air India owe Rs.525 crore to GMR

New Delhi, April 10 (IANS) Infrastructure major GMR group Tuesday said that cash-strapped airlines Kingfisher and Air India owed it about Rs.525 crore for using the Delhi and Hyderabad airports.

"Kingfisher owes us about Rs.70-75 crore and Air India about Rs.450 crore. Both have been put under cash and carry mode of operations," Sidharth Kapur, chief financial officer, Delhi International Airports Ltd, told IANS.

According to Kapur, this was severely affecting the company's airport operations and all efforts were underway to recover the dues.

"In the cash and carry mode Kingfisher is paying us about Rs.40-45 lakh per day," Kapur said on the sidelines of International Aviation Economic Conference 2012 being organised here.

"We are not getting regular payments from Air India."

In the cash and carry mode, the airline has to pay every time it uses various facilities of the airport. This includes the parking, housing and landing charges of the aircraft as well as the ticketing counters.

Kapur said he expected the national carrier to make immediate payments on its dues.

"We expect that Air India and the government should make immediate payment of some amount or we run the risk of turning sick."

He added that DIAL was likely to suffer losses worth Rs.900-1,000 crore in the financial year.

DIAL also has long term debt of Rs.5,300 crore, including foreign borrowings with an interest rate of about 10 percent to 10.5 percent.

On the issue of airport charges, Kapur hoped that the company's proposal for increase in the charges would be approved by the Airport Economic Regulatory Authority (AERA).

"We hope that AERA accepts our proposal. If you look at the hike on an average it would translate into Rs.350 to 450 per passenger."

"Terminal 3 has provided great savings and revenues for the airline industry, excellent passenger facilities and infrastructure and at the current charges which are over 10 years old it will not be sustainable."

In its proposal to AERA, the company had proposed a hike of close to 800 percent whereas AERA has suggested it to be around 334 percent.

Earlier the airports' economic regulator had also floated a consultation paper to determine the charges for Delhi airport last year. Many airlines have opposed DIAL's proposal.

But DIAL maintains that under the concession agreement for airport development and operations it has made considerable investment and is liable for a reasonable return.

AERA is expected to give its order on the issue soon.