Hyderabad flights to become expensive as AERA allows for increase in user development fee

Hyderabad: The Airports Economic Regulatory Authority (AERA) has allowed GMR Hyderabad International Airport to gradually increase User development fee on domestic and international passengers from April 1 2022.

GMR Hyderabad International Airport manages the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport and as such the user development fee increase is applicable to it.

In an order on the tariff’s revision for the third control period (from month of April 2021 to March 26) based on a proposal by the GMR Hyderabad International Airport Limited, the AERA has issued orders which were uploaded in its web portal recently, stated a report by The Financial Express.

As per AERA’s orders, the airport operator was allowed to increase User Development Fee from the existing amount of Rs 281 to Rs 480 for domestic passengers and Rs 393 to Rs 700 for international passengers respectively from 1 April 2022.

Similarly, the charges will increase up to an amount of Rs 750 for domestic and Rs 1500 for international flyers by 31 December 2025.

However, the charges will be cut down to Rs 500 for domestic passengers and Rs 1,000 for international flyers for the last three months of the Control period, the order by AERA stated.

The authority has agreed for tariff increases along with additional charges in the form of UDF, but at the same AERA believes that the subsequent control period would be better in the context of lesser capital needs and larger passenger base owing to the recovery in aviation sector as well as the economy’s revival from the COVID-19 pandemic, AERA stated.