In a statement, the party's Central Secretariat charged the government with "yielding to pressures from private (airport) owners" to increase the user charges up.
It said the CPI had "always opposed" privatisation of airports and "our apprehensions have been proved correct with this abnormal increase in airport service charges. It must be withdrawn immediately."
Noting that the hike would only benefit the private airport operators, the CPI said the measure would be an additional burden on the passengers as air travel is "not a luxury these days as many people travel due to urgency and unavoidable necessity."
The Left party also said that after privatisation, Indian airports "are being turned into huge malls" where passengers were made to pay high rates to have "anything from drinking water to coffee". PTI ARC
