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Ministry says no ADF at Kolkata, Chennai airports

The aviation ministry has turned down the Airports Authority of India’s proposal to charge airports development fee at the Chennai and Kolkata airports.

The aviation ministry has turned down the Airports Authority of India’s (AAI) proposal to charge airports development fee (ADF) at the Chennai and Kolkata airports. Civil aviation minister Ajit Singh on Friday asked the airport operator not to levy any such fee on passengers.

The ADF is levied to bridge the funding gap incurred during the construction of an airport. The modernisation and expansion of Kolkata and Chennai airports is estimated to cost the AAI R2,325 crore and R2,015 crore.

The airport developer and operator had earlier proposed to levy a development fee of R300 per embarking domestic passenger and R1,000 per embarking international passenger at both the airports and had sent it to the Airports Economic Regulatory Authority (AERA). AERA returned the proposal to AAI asking it to undertake user consultations and make fresh proposals indicating agreements/ views of the users. Now, with the aviation ministry’s direction, AAI will have to send its proposal to AERA without incorporating ADF. ?The directive on ADF is in line with the stated objective of the government to make air travel affordable and to ensure that the passengers are not subjected to any extra burden,? the aviation ministry said in its release.

At present, both Mumbai and Delhi airports charge ADF. While at Delhi airport, the fee is R200 per domestic passenger and R1,300 per international passenger, the Mumbai airport charges an ADF of R100 per domestic passenger and R600 per international passenger.

The ministry’s statement said, ?AERA will now determine only user development fee (UDF) and other tariffs like landing and parking charges and no ADF will be charged from the passengers flying from Kolkata and Chennai airports even after the modernisation of the airport is completed.

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First published on: 13-10-2012 at 00:29 IST
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