Private airlines owe Rs 352 crore (Rs 3.52 billion) to the Airports Authority of India of which Kingfisher Airlines, which has the second largest market share in terms of passenger traffic, has a due of around Rs 257 crore (Rs 2.57 billion).
Kingfisher owes Rs 257.62 crore (Rs 2.57 billion) to the AAI, while Jet Airways Rs 38.49 crore (Rs 384.9 million) and its low cost arm JetLite Rs 13.96 crore (Rs 139.6 million), as on January 31, Civil Aviation Minister and Minister for Overseas Affairs Vayalar Ravi informed the Rajya Sabha on Thursday.
Low cost carriers, SpiceJet has a due of Rs 16.99 crore (Rs 169.9 million), while IndiGo owes Rs 13.29 crore (Rs 132.9 million) and Go Air Rs 6.77 crore (Rs 67.7 million).
Paramount Airways, which stopped operations in August last year, owes Rs 4.88 crore (Rs 48.8 million)
to the AAI as landing fee, parking fee, airport charge and other heads.
He said that continuous monitoring is done by the AAI to ensure that the airlines pay their dues in time, and in case of default in payment by the airlines, measures like charging of penal interest, withdrawal of credit facility and putting the airline on 'cash and carry' basis.
Last year, Jet and JetLite combine had 26 per cent market share in terms of passenger traffic, while Kingfisher had 20.60 per cent, followed by no frill carrier IndiGo - which has a share of 16.3 per cent, Spice Jet has 12.9 per cent and Go Air had just 5.9 per cent.