‘India can help Zim collect foreign airline dues’
THE Airports Authority of India (AAI) says Zimbabwe could be losing millions in potential revenue through uncollected aeronautical revenue for use of its airspace, a senior official with India’s ports administrator has said.
AAI manager (Business Development) Asim Kant said India had the expertise, gained from over 125 airports it manages, to help Zimbabwe collect its dues from foreign airlines that use its airspace.
AAI is looking beyond national boundaries and interests and is undertaking newer business initiatives by exploring global aviation markets for consultancy, construction, management services, export services and undertaking operations abroad in relation to airports, air-navigation services, ground aids and safety services beyond national borders.
Mr Kant said most of the leakages that happen with regards to the use of the country’s airspace occur unintentionally and it was critical to have an efficient data capture system that enables a country to make follows ups for payments.
“Essentially, there are two types of revenue; one is aeronautical revenue and the other is non-aeronautical revenue. Aeronautical revenue, for instance, is when airlines land or take off from the CAAZ airports,” Mr Kant said.
“For this type of revenue, there are a lot of leakages that happen. Some of the airlines (foreign) do not pay the airspace fees because some of them do not land in Zimbabwe, but just fly over its airspace,” Mr Kant added.
Mr Kant had a special meeting with Industry and Commerce Minister Dr Mike Bimha during a recent visit to Zimbabwe of a business delegation from India, which expressed interest in enhancing trade and investment ties with Zimbabwe.
Mr Kant said leakages existed in Zimbabwe because some of the airlines were out of reach, as they just fly over and (CAAZ) did not have direct access to them. He said India had the system that could track all aircraft using Zimbabwe’s airspace.
“It is not intentional, but revenue leakages are there, it is basically systematic because it is part of the international aviation system. But if you know your deficiencies you can improve on them; that is the whole concept.”
The Airports Authority of India in collaboration with the International Air Transport Association, this year unveiled unique comprehensive e-billing solution comprising of data gathering, invoicing and collection called SKYREV360.
This unique system is one of its kind and would help airport operators worldwide in avoiding revenue leakages, reducing redundancies, reduction in disputes, easy integration with all external systems and also help in curtailing debt collection period to the minimum.
The system is compatible to any of the radar systems in the world and can be hosted on cloud servers.
The SKYREV360 was globally launched by Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju in February.