New Delhi, Oct. 12:
In a relief to passengers flying from Chennai
and Kolkata, the Ministry of Civil Aviation has directed the Airports Authority
of India (AAI) not to impose any airport development fee (ADF).
The State-owned airports planned to levy an ADF
of Rs 300 on each passenger departing on a domestic flight and Rs 1,000 on
every passenger catching an international flight.
The proposal had been approved by the Airports
Economic Regulatory Authority (AERA), the independent airport regulator
appointed by the Government to look at airport charges.
AERA will now determine only user development
fee (UDF) and other tariffs, such as landing and parking charges, and no ADF
will be charged from passengers flying from Kolkata and Chennai airports, even
after modernisation is complete.
Modernisation
Modernisation and expansion of Kolkata and
Chennai airports are taking place at a cost of Rs 2,325 crore and Rs 2,015 crore,
respectively.
In a consultation paper on ADF proposals put up
in the public domain, AERA officials warned that any delay in levying the
charges would result in passengers paying more to travel through the two
airports at a later date.
No extra burden
On Friday, the Ministry of Civil Aviation issued
a statement saying that AAI had now submitted proposals to AERA without
incorporating ADF. “The directive on ADF is in line with the stated objective
of the Government to make air travel affordable and to ensure that passengers
are not subjected to any extra burden,” it added.
Incidentally, passengers taking a domestic
flight from Delhi now pay Rs 200 while international flyers are charged Rs
1,300. Similarly, Mumbai charges Rs 100 from each domestic passenger and Rs 600
from an international traveller.
The airports in both the metro cities are being
modernised by a consortium headed by private company.
In Delhi, the Bangalore-based GMR Group leads
the consortium while a GVK-led team is undertaking the modernisation of Mumbai
airport.
Officials of neither AAI nor AERA were available
for comments.
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