GMR Airport gets to raise passenger fees 26-87% in Hyderabad

GMR Hyderabad International Airport Ltd (Ghial), which operates the airport at Shamshabad in Hyderabad, has received a go-ahead from the Airports Economic Regulatory Authority (Aera) for increasing the user development fee.

The airport company, which is a subsidiary of the infrastructure major GMR Infra, will now collect Rs430 as UDF from embarking domestic passengers, 26% more than the Rs340 currently charged, and Rs1,700 from the international passengers, or 87% more than the Rs907 excluding taxes being paid now.

The new UDF is excluding service tax.
According to an Aera order, the revised tariff would come into force from November 1, and the approval for UDF hike was given on an ad hoc basis.

The airport company has been seeking a revision in the UDF for sometime now and the issue was more about the domestic UDF.

With the approvals pending with the Aera for sometime, Ghial started collecting Rs375 UDF from the domestic passengers under protest and tried to convince the Aera that the company was incurring a loss of about Rs16 crore per month due to lower UDF on domestic passengers.

The passenger throughput at Hyderabad airport during 2009-10 was 65.12 lakh, which is in excess of about 5 million passengers per annumn thus qualifying to be called a major airport.    

As per the traffic statistics, about 26.35% of the total passenger throughput was international while the balance in the domestic routes.

Though there has been no specific formula to arrive at the quantum of UDF to be levied, the calculations are linked to the returns the company makes on its fixed asset base.