Hyd airport's user development fee scraped: AERA

Order was issued after consultations with all stakeholders for determination of the Aeronautical Tariffs

Airports Economic Regulatory Authority has scrapped the user development fee (UDF) being collected at the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport operated by GMR Group here, effective April 1.

"The authority has also decided that the facilitation component of the passenger service fee would now be merged with UDF. However, in case of HIAL (Hyderabad International Airport Ltd), the authority has determined UDF as zero (0) with effect from 1.4.2014 till 31.3.2016 for both domestic and international embarking passengers," AERA said in an order issued yesterday.

The order was issued after consultations with all the stakeholders for determination of the Aeronautical Tariffs in respect of the airport for the first control period (1.4.2011- 31.3.2016).

The current level of UDF at RGI Airport, Hyderabad is Rs 430 per departing domestic passenger and Rs 1,700 for international passenger (ad-hoc determination by the authority in October 2010), plus taxes.

UDF is a charge levied by airport operator on passengers to recoup the investment made on the development of the airport.

When contacted, a spokesperson of GMR Hyderabad International Airport said: "We are in the process of going through the AERA order and do not wish to make any specific comments at this stage."

GMR Hyderabad International Airport is a joint venture company promoted by the GMR Group (63 per cent) in partnership with the Government of India (13 per cent), Government of Andhra Pradesh (13 per cent) and Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (11 per cent).

The Hyderabad airport, commissioned in March 2008, handled 6.3 million domestic passengers and 2.1 million international passengers in 2012-13. During the first half of the current fiscal it handled 3.2 million and 1.2 million domestic and international passengers, respectively.