Flights from non-metro airports to cost more

International travellers boarding from nine non-metro airports will have to fork out up to Rs 1,000 by way of a user development fee as the government looks to prop up the coffers of the Airports Authority of India (AAI).

For domestic travellers, the fee could be around Rs 200 depending upon the kind of investment made by AAI to upgrade these airports.

Jaipur could be the first airport to slap the fee, while other eight airports, including Ahmedabad, Trichi and Varanasi, may follow suit, a senior government official told ET. The government has allowed AAI to collect Rs 1,000 from each outgoing passengers at Jaipur airport besides charging Rs 150 from domestic flyers.

“Civil aviation minister Praful Patel has approved a proposal on the development fee at Jaipur airport,” the official said requesting anonymity since he is not authorised to speak to the media.

Kapil Kaul, who heads aviation consultancy Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation (CAPA) said that the fee was a cause of concern as a sustainable recovery in demand is yet to be seen in the sector.

Nearly 1 lakh international passengers flew out of Jaipur airport during April-August, 2009. The number of domestic passengers during the same period stood at 4.8 lakh. The levy could fetch about Rs 50 crore from the airport annually.
An AAI official confirmed the move but said the agency was yet to receive any official communication from the ministry in this regard.

AAI is facing a revenue shortfall of about Rs 5,400 crore for airport development planned in the Eleventh Five Year plan, ending March 2012. It had moved a proposal for a user development fee at eight more non-metro airports, the official said. The ministry may soon give its go-ahead to this proposal as well, he added. The levy may be in the same range as that levied by Jaipur.

He said the ministry’s approval was required for the move, since the passenger traffic handled by these airports is less.

“Most of these non-metro airports barring Ahmedabad handle a traffic less than 1.5 million a year. So, the permission to levy the fee can be given only by the ministry, “ he said.