Citco moves Mohali court against closure of airport domestic lounge

CHANDIGARH: Citco (The Chandigarh Industrial and Tourism Development Corporation ) has filed an application in Mohali court over the closure of its domestic lounge at the Chandigarh International Airport .


Recently, Chandigarh International Airport Limited (CHIAL) had ordered Citco to vacate the domestic lounge premises by August 10.

This decision of CHIAL was challenged by Citco in Chandigarh district court , which directed Citco to move the Mohali court because of territorial jurisdiction.

Later, Citco closed its operation at the domestic lounge on August 21 and shifted its staff to some other units of Citco in Chandigarh.

Thereafter, a decision in this regard was taken by senior officials of Citco to move Mohali court. A senior Citco official said that they have now filed an application in Mohali court.

In September 2016, the high court had directed the Airport Authority of India (AAI) to approach Citco for setting up lounges at the Chandigarh airport . It was said Citco would operate executive lounges at international and domestic terminals and commercial rates were charged for allotted areas as licence fee.

But later it was found that passengers don’t have time to visit the lounges as there is no stopover of flights at the airport and hence it was prayed to allot the internal and domestic lounges on long-term lease on rental basis. The CHIAL in November 2017 extended the allotment of executive lounges to Citco for five years till 2021. No rebate was given, but licence fee was increased by 10%.

On July 2, CHIAL issued a notice for termination of space allotted for domestic lounge to Citco, which was directed to vacate the domestic lounge by August 10.