Chennai airport to become costlier to the passengers

The Airport Authority of India (AAI) has a plan of introducing a hike in the User Development Fee (UDF) of Rs.165 on every passenger for a domestic flight and of Rs.667 for an International flight from the airport. The AAI has sent the proposal to the Airports Economic Regulatory Authority (AERA) that the rise be effective from January 1, 2013.  The final decision is awaited from AERA. The AAI has proposed increase in some other charges as well such as in landing charges. The airport proposes a 188 percent increase in international landing charges and a 48% in domestic landing charges. A senior executive of some private airline said (and it can be commonly expected as well as almost a regular business practice) that the “entire cost increase will be passed on to the passenger”. The AAI, on the other hand, justifies the increases on the ground that the airport tariffs had not been revised since 2001, except for a 10% hike in 2009 for all its ports. Of course, the rates for the cargo services will remain unchanged till 2015-16.

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