Beginning July 1, airfares from some Airports Authority of India (AAI) airports will become cheaper as the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has issued an order rolling back a 10% hike in airport charges at non-major airports made effective from December last year.
“The tariff pertaining to Air Navigational Charges at all airports and airport charges at non-major airports of AAI for all domestic flights are restored hereby to the rates as where applicable prior to 16.12.2016,” DGCA chief B.S. Bhullar said in an order dated June 16, uploaded on its website on Monday. “The restored tariff will be applicable for the period July 1, 2017 to March 31, 2018,” the order further said.
This follows a directive from the Civil Aviation Ministry to DGCA and Airports Authority of India earlier this month asking for a rollback in higher airport charges in a bid to bring down airfares. In December, airport charges were raised by 10% — a first such hike in eight years. This was followed by a subsequent hike by 5% in airport charges beginning April 1. The airport charge increase was applicable on non-major airports such as Amritsar, Nagpur, Bagdogra, Surat, Madurai, Vijayawada, Jammu, Varanasi, Vadadora, among others, which handle an annual traffic of less than 15 lakh.
