By Kavita Mistry 
Passengers flying in and out of the Mumbai International Airport will have to shell out up to INR 695 as a user development fee from May 16 following the airport tariff regulator AERA allowing the airport operator to revise the fee. Earlier, a charge of INR 120 per departing domestic passenger was levied till August 2024 in the form of development fees while international passengers pay INR 187 as UDF.
As per the new tariff order, which will be applicable for the fourth traffic control period (FY 2024-2029), each embarking domestic passenger will pay INR 175 as UDF and INR 75 for disembarking while an embarking international business class passenger will have to shell out INR 695 as against INR 615 by the international embarking economy class passenger, as per AERA.
Each disembarking international business and economy class passenger will have to pay INR 304 and INR 260, respectively.
The Airport Economic Regulatory Authority (AERA) has the mandate to determine all tariffs for major airports in the country.
An airport which has or is designated to have a capacity of 3.5 million passengers per annum or above falls in the category of major airports.
AERA said it has decided to set the UDF for domestic passengers at the rate of INR 175 per departing domestic passenger, which will remain constant throughout the Fourth Control Period, adding the UDF has been set nominally at INR 175 for domestic air passengers who comprise 75 per cent of the total passenger air traffic at CSMI Airport, “underscoring the commitment to protect passenger interests, ensure affordability, and foster growth in the domestic aviation sector.”
It also said that the adjustment (two tied UDF for business class in international travel) aligns with the “User Pays” principle and reflects the enhanced passenger experience and expanded facilities available and used by international travellers.
The landing and parking charges for the airlines have also been rationalized downwards and kept at reasonable levels, considering competitive airport charges at similar airports to ensure that airline operations are not unduly burdened, and that operational efficiency is maintained, according to the airport tariff regulator.
AERA also said that after a comprehensive review of stakeholder inputs and based on its analysis, prudence check and due diligence of the MYTP of the airport operator, it has arrived at a yield per Passenger (YPP) of INR 442 per departing passenger for MIAL for the Fourth Control Period, which was then suitably apportioned between landing and parking charges, UDF and other airport charges.
UDF now has been determined for both embarking and disembarking passengers as a significant portion of the airport infrastructure including aero bridges, travelators, conveyor belt, and arrival facilities inside the terminal building are also being used by both embarking and disembarking passengers, it said.
Therefore, distributing the overall UDF charges between embarking and disembarking passengers in a suitable proportion of their actual usage of airport facilities would lead to an equitable distribution of the tariff burden amongst the users of the airport and would also spread out the costs amongst all airport users, AERA said.
The tariff so determined by AERA matches this yield per departing passenger, it said, adding an important issue included in the tariff proposal of MIAL for the fourth control period was the demolition and re-construction of Terminal T1 with 20 MPPA capacity in accordance with the Master Plan of CSMIA.
