User fee likely at Thiruvananthapuram airport

Thiruvananthapuram: Flying from Thiruvananthapuram Airport may soon become dearer as the Airports Authority of India (AAI) is planning to impose User Development Fee (UDF) at the airport once the new terminal becomes operational.
Highly-placed sources in the Civil Aviation Ministry told this paper that the AAI proposed a user fee of around Rs 900 per outbound international passenger and around Rs 300 per outbound domestic passenger from the Thiruvananthapuram airport. But, there would be no user fee for inbound passengers.
“The proposal is under the active consideration of Airports Economic Regulatory Authority (AERA), the newly-formed regulatory authority on airline-related fares. A final decision on imposing UDF would be announced once the new terminal is inaugurated, which is expected to happen within a couple of months’ time,’’ said sources.
Local sources, however, said that any decision to introduce user fee at the city airport would spark off a massive agitation in the State capital. Though user fee was earlier imposed at the Nedumbassery and Karipur airports, it was later withdrawn owing to stiff resistance from various quarters.
UDF has been imposed at all the newly-developed airports, including the Bangalore and Hyderabad airports. The AAI has now proposed to levy UDF at nine of its airports, including the one at Thiruvananthapuram.
16/03/10 Arjun Raghunath/ExpressBuzz.com

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Categories: Airports Mar 2010