By Express News Service
BENGALURU: The cost of flying out of the Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) could decrease significantly for passengers as the Airports Economic Regulatory Authority of India (AERA), which is responsible for regulating tariffs, is set to pass its order regarding tariffs and charges at the KIA by the end of this month or early July.
On Monday, AERA officials held a stakeholder consultation meeting in the city, in which various representatives of airlines, passengers as well as representatives of the Bangalore Political Action Committee (B.PAC) were present. The meeting, which the media was not allowed to attend, was about a consultation paper released by AERA which discusses financials of the KIA and also includes proposals made by the Bangalore International Airport Limited for tariffs and charges till 2021.
In the new proposal, the User Development Fee (UDF) is likely to be slashed from Rs 1,226 to Rs 316.8 for international flights and from 306 to 79.2 Rs for domestic flights for the next year with a marginal increase every year till 2021.
However, Monday’s meeting also led to stakeholders arguing for the waiving of UDF completely, a move that the BIAL opposed. In their presentation, the BIAL justified the collection of UDF from passengers on the lines of a multi-year tariff in which the UDF collected will rise marginally till 2021. Revathy Ashok, representing B.PAC, raised questions about the calculations made by BIAL in submitting their tariff proposal including passenger numbers and costs of planned expansion.
She also pointed out that the BIAL had not made available accounts for the financial year 2017-18 in their website which would allow for public scrutiny to understand the need for such high user development fees. Also, Ashok said that the airports projections varied significantly with actual number of passengers and asked for a survey by an independent agency for future projections.
According to Sanjeev Dyammanavvar, one of the attendees, the BIAL had not furnished details of aeronautical revenue, which includes airline rents, usage fees and charges. In addition to the UDF, passengers departing from the KIA also pay a passenger service fee of Rs 200 every time they board a flight. The AERA proposed tariff however does not discuss this fee which is likely to remain the same.
