The Airports Corporation of Viet Nam (AVC) was seeking a nod of the Ministry of Transport on its proposal of raising domestic airport service fees.

The Airports Corporation of Viet Nam wants to raise domestic airport service charges.

The ACV, which was in charge of managing 22 airports, said that raising domestic airport service fees was aimed at recovering capital for expanding investments to meet the rising demand of air travelling and drawing investors to pour funds into the local airports.

Accordingly, the domestic airport charge on passengers was proposed to be increased from VND70,000 (US$ 3.2) per ticket to VND100,000 from the beginning of next year.

The AVC also proposed increases in services charges on carriers. It collected around VND162 million to VND192 million from domestic carriers per parking lot each year while investment amounted to VND4.57 billion per lot, making it difficult to recover capitals.

The AVC said with the low airport fees coupled with low fuel prices, carriers were offering airfares for domestic routes which were even lower than railway tickets, which would have a negative impact on the development of the railways, Nguoi Lao Dong (Labourer) newspaper reported.

Economic expert Ngo Tri Long said that airfares depended not only on airport service charges but a combination of factors, such as fuel prices, corporate governance and competition strategy.

Long said that there was no reason for airfares to always be higher than railway ticket prices. He added that competition from airlines would even push the railways to improve its service quality.

"The proposal for raising airport services charges needs careful consideration," Long said.

Deputy Minister of Transport Nguyen Nhat said that the ministry would give careful consideration to the proposal to limit impacts on the aviation market and airline ticket prices. 

VNS