Date:19/08/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/08/19/stories/2008081957920100.htm

Front Page

User fee for domestic air passengers Rs. 375

Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD: The fixing of the User Development Fee (UDF) at Rs. 375 for each departing domestic passenger by the Centre has come as a surprise for the GMR Hyderabad International Airport Limited (GHIAL) on Monday evening. The company which operates the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport (RGIA) in Shamshabad was expecting it to be around Rs. 725 minimum.

GHIAL officials will be meeting on Tuesday to decide on the date from which the UDF could be collected from the passengers. Already, every passenger taking international flights out of Hyderabad is paying Rs. 1,000 or $ 25 as UDF at the RGIA. “We received the communication from the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) after office hours. We will be meeting on Tuesday to decide on the date,” was all a senior functionary of GHIAL would say. The GHIAL had earlier represented to the MoCA that the UDF for the domestic passengers could be fixed around Rs. 725 each. Since the MoCA had allowed the airport operators to collect Rs. 1,000 from international passengers, the GHIAL was ready to scale down the domestic UDF to Rs. 725 per passenger. The issue had been hanging fire for more than two months. The UDF from international passengers was being collected from June 11, 2008.

During discussions with the MoCA, another option that came up was the possible collection of different UDF for passengers flying to destinations within the State and out of the State.