Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh has directed Airports Authority of India (AAI) not to charge Airport Development Fee (ADF) to passengers at the newly-restructured and modernised airports at Chennai and Kolkata.
“Accordingly, the AAI has now submitted proposals to the Airports Economic Regulatory Authority (AERA) without incorporating ADF,” a Civil Aviation Ministry spokesperson said here on Friday.
The spokesperson pointed out that the Minister’s directive on ADF was in line with the stated objective of the government to make the air travel affordable, and to ensure that the passengers were not subjected to any extra burden.
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Modernisation
The AERA will now determine only User Development Fee (UDF) and tariffs such as landing and parking charges but ADF will not be charged to the passengers flying from Kolkata and Chennai airports even after the modernisation of the two metro airports was completed. The modernisation-cum-expansion of the two airports is likely to be completed soon. When the new terminals become functional, the Chennai airport would be able to handle about 23 million passengers every year while the Kolkata airport 20 million passengers annually.