Move to impose user fee draws flak

Tiruchi: A proposal to levy a “hefty” user development fee on passengers at the new airport terminal in the city has caused much consternation among the travel trade and air operators.
While the new terminal, built at an investment of Rs.80 crore by the Airports Authority of India, is yet to become functional, news about the proposed levy has come as a dampener for the travel industry which eagerly awaits the terminal to become operational.
According to sources, airlines have been informally told that passengers departing from the new terminal on international flights would have to shell out Rs.1,000 each towards the user development fee. For domestic passengers, it will be Rs.200 per head.
The fee is expected to be collected directly by the AAI at the airport.
Sources say that this will be a uniform levy in the airports recently developed by the AAI.
The user development fee was fixed at the government level and there was nothing they could do about it.
While officials say that the user development fee charged in some of the airports, especially the private ones, were much higher, air operators and travel industry representatives say that Tiruchi cannot be put on par with airports in the metro cities.
“This is still a developing airport and an emerging market. Here, labour traffic accounts for a major portion of passengers flying out to destinations abroad and these travellers would demur at such a high fee,” says an officer of an airline operating flights out of Tiruchi.
27/04/09 Hindu

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Categories: Airports Apr 2009