Domestic Airlines tax increase

The prices of domestic airline's tax have again increased from the start of December. Now one has to pay Rs 2025 as tax for domestic flights. This rise in prices have been done gradually over a period of time. In 2006 one used to pay in 3 digits and by start of 2007 the prices went into 4 digits. If this continues one has to be ready to pay an increase in airline tax every 2-3 months. The best reasons either the government or the airlines justify for the increase is the surcharge on the fuel, construction of new airports or expansion of existing ones.

Long break...

It's been around 4 months since I last posted. It could be that I was busy with a lot of things on my mind or just the plain old laziness getting to me. I am pretty sure that the latter is always been the case with me. This last quarter of 2007 has really made me lazy. I had a lot that I wanted to post but kept on letting it go. Any how, I hope with the start of the new year I will be able to keep posting. Now I am getting redundant with the message I am trying to convey.

Kung Fu Fighting

This is a very old song which I really like. The singer's name is Carl Douglas and this song was released in 1974. This song hit number 1 at that time. This song has appeared in a lot of movies for example Shaolin Soccer, Epic Movie, Beverly Hills Ninja and the most recent being Rush Hour 3. The song 'Kung Fu Fighting' had been inspired when Carl Douglas had seen a Kung Fu movie, and had attended a Jazz concert and also was having side-effects of pain killers as he had a foot injury. Another interesting fact about this song is that it was produced by Biddu Appaiah.

Biddu Appaiah is associated with lot of songs and artists. Artists like Carl Douglas and Tina Charles started off their career with him. Biddu gained lot of fame in India with the release of the movie Qurbani in 1979. He had produced a song with a new singer, Nazia Hassan who was only 15 and had sung the hit song 'Aap Jaisa Koi' and 'Laila o Laila' for the movie Qurbani. Even after these accomplishments, he brought forth Alisha Chinoy in 1995 with the hit song 'Made in India'.

Airline taxes

Nowadays everyone uses airlines either to cut on their travel time or due to the prices closeness of second/third class air-conditioned compartments of the Indian railways. This is why the domestic air sector in India is booming. Now due to the large varieties of airlines available the price competition has also become fierce. Due to these, tickets are coming cheap. Ofcourse that is what the advertisements show. Tickets for Zero, 99, 199, 299 etc.. The catch part is the taxes that are paid at the time of purchase of the ticket. Now these prices have risen a lot in the past few years. Just starting this month the tax was increased by Rs 150. Anyways, let me show you how the break-up of the taxes take place. For each ticket one purchases for a journey, the tax collected are divided as follow:

• Passenger Service fee: Rs 225.
• Fuel Surcharge: Rs 1100 (This got increased from 950 since August 2007).
• Transaction surcharge: Rs 100.
• Congestion fee: Rs 150.

Now donot get misled by the word 'Taxes'. People in general will consider that taxes are collected by the government. But in this case, except for the Rs 225 for the passenger service fee which is taken by the Airport Authority of India (AAI), the rest is taken by the airlines. The government still charges 0.62% on the base fare of the ticket. That is if the base fare is Rs 100 then the government gets 62 Paise. Anyways, the one of the reason what the airlines give for the so called taxes are that the Jet Fuel prices are high so Fuel Surcharge is increased. The above break up when added will come to Rs 1575.

When we take the same tax's price list to the International sector, we get the amounts roughly Rs 3600+. Here we have to consider that the charges put by different countries, both the source and destination and also the airports at both places. That is why I have to be mentally prepared before purchasing any ticket after looking at all the awesome dirt cheap prices different airlines offer. So this is what flying is all about.

Directional Signboard!

We see signboards everyday at every corner when we are moving around. Traffic signs, address signs, construction signs and many others are put up all around us. We come across it on a daily basis and some catch our eyes. Here is one which I saw on my way to a friend's house. This is an address sign which let's people know that the particular place is in that direction. This sign belongs to a Gym called Talwalkars. I am not a gym member but looking at the sign really gives me a good laugh. This idea was really innovatively taken from the road construction symbol - Road Construction Ahead. Just for information sake, the sign here says AHEAD while the arrow shows the right hand direction.

Blazing Red Bike

This post will be more of a show than write. The pictures that are displayed here was taken by me when I was visiting a restaurant. Ofcourse, the pictures are of a bike outside in a service station next to the restaurant. This bike was getting serviced, but looking at it just made me click a picture of it. It is a really good looking bike. It's red colour is an eye catcher, but even the design of skulls along with the red colour give it a beautiful look. Just take a moment to look at it and take a deep breath. I have seriously no idea what are the features of the bike like what CC is the engine and how much Horse Power it produces. So I cannot provide any technical information.

Airport TV Service

When returning from Delhi, I had to check into the domestic departure terminal. My check-in counter was supposed to open in sometime, so I has some time to kill. I wanted to check for the updates on the flight status, so went to one of these TVs. Now since it is Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport, the TV installed is a Samsung Plasma screen TV (I think it is a 32 inch). There was no information available due to some access problems. But I know that for the 1 hour and above I spent there, I never saw it once functioning properly like displaying flight status. If that was not enough, the TV was being accompanied by 2 pigeons sitting over it. At one point, the pigeons flew above me and their droppings missed me by a small distance while I was seated waiting for my counter to be open. I am pretty sure that AAI (Airport Authority of India) has been working very hard in expanding the IGI airport for the 2010 Commonwealth Games that they miss these small things.