Pay more for a swanky airport

Goverment okays airport developer's proposal to levy development fee; Rs 200 extra for domestic passengers and Rs 1,300 for international fliers

Pay more for a swanky airport

Goverment okays airport developer's proposal to levy development fee; Rs 200 extra for domestic passengers and Rs 1,300 for international fliers

The low airfare honeymoon is over. At least for travellers flying out of the Delhi airport.

From March onwards, passengers flying from the Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGI) at Delhi will have to shell out extra as the Civil Aviation Ministry on Tuesday approved the proposal of Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL) to levy a development charge on fliers.

"Outbound passengers on domestic routes have to pay Rs 200 and international passengers will pay Rs 1,300 as development fee for the next three years from March 1, 2009," said a DIAL official, on condition of anonymity.
The extra charges may play spoilsport for airlines, which had lowered their fares to make up the losses they were incurring due to the drastic fall in air travellers in 2008.

MiD DAY on January 13, 2009, had reported that the DIAL had proposed to levy a User Development Fee (UDF) to raise funds for modernisation under the Airports Authority of India Act, 1994. The fee was supposed to be Rs 260 for domestic passengers and Rs 1,070 for international fliers. Though the domestic traveller has been given some respite, departing international passengers will have to pay Rs 300 more than what was orginally proposed by DIAL.

After similar charges were approved by the government for the Bangalore International Airport in January last year, it was very likely that the proposal to levy the same in Delhi will also be accepted. However, levying of development fee at the Mumbai Airport is still pending with the Civil Aviation Ministry.

DIAL is currently facing an estimated shortfall of Rs 1,827 crore for development work and has informed the government that it has been unable to raise refundable security deposits from market.