Airports Authority of India eyes Rs 150 crore from user fee

The Airports Authority of India (AAI) expects to earn Rs 150 crore additional revenue from levying a development fee (DF) across several airports managed and operated by it this year.

It has already begun charging Rs 150 from outgoing domestic passengers and Rs 1,000 for international passengers at the Jaipur airport. Similar levy proposals for airports at Kolkata, Chennai, Ahmedabad and Thiruvananthapuram have been made to the Airport Economic Regulatory Authority (Aera).

A senior AAI official told DNA Money that besides the proposals pending with Aera, the authority has also sought DF levy on non-metro airports including Amritsar, Mangalore, Trichy, Vishakhapatnam, Udaipur and Varanasi.

The proposal to levy a fee over and above the ticket price at these airports is interesting since this concept was first introduced by private airport developers at the international airports of Delhi and Mumbai, and has been widely criticised by international bodies who point towards inability of a viable modernisation and upgradation plan for any revenue shortfall and oppose any move to make air travel more expensive for passengers.

AAI has been seeking a DF levy to partly overcome the significant fund shortfall it is facing. It needs to raise Rs 2,800 crore in debt between now and March 2012 to fund development of small airports as well as large development projects such as Kolkata and Chennai airports.

The AAI official also said that of the 35 non-metro airports the government plans to develop, terminal and runway works have been completed at 11 such airports. Work at another eight airports should finish by March, but the remaining 16 airports will take time.

On greenfield airport proposals (for construction of a brand new airport), the official said that the government has only okayed one such proposal — for building an airport in Sikkim.