About 10 agencies at the Calcutta airport have sought rebates on the contract amount because the airport did not have any business for two months and even now there are barely any earnings.

Retail stores, car parking, food and beverage facilities, duty-free shops, app-cab service, SIM card and Wi-Fi network providers — there is a long list of private agencies that have written to the airport authorities seeking a rebate on the contract amount. The airport earns around Rs 14 crore every month as licence fee from these agencies.

“All of them want either relief or rebate,” said airport director Kaushik Bhattacharya.

The Calcutta airport authorities have forwarded the requests to the Airports Authority of India headquarters in Delhi.

In April and May, there was no business because the airport was non-functional.

In June, too, there was hardly any business and the situation barely improved in July.

The Calcutta airport used to handle about 70,000 passengers every day with 450 flights taking off and arriving. Now, it is less than 10,000 with only 84 flights operating.

The agency handling the airport’s vehicle parking pays the authorities around Rs 1.4 lakh as licence fee. There would be about 200 cars at the parking lot every day before Covid-19 struck.

“Now, there are barely 10 cars. I have sought relief for at least three months,” said Babulal Yadav, general manager of Mahesh Sunny Enterprises, which runs the facility.

There are allegations that the agency is now charging Rs 100 to vehicles even if a vehicle is parked for less than 10 minutes.

“We have received such complaints,” said the airport director. Yadav, however, denied the allegations.