At a time when air travel in India is said to be becoming increasingly accessible, as per reports, commuting from the nation’s capital, the Delhi Airport could get costlier for premium class travellers.
As according to a report by Hindi publication Dainik Bhaskar, the Delhi International Airport Limited, the consortium led by GMR group, that runs the busiest airport in India has proposed an increase in UDF or User Development Fee.
What is UDF?
User Development Fee (UDF) or simply Development Fee, is a fee levied by the airports from the passengers for facilitation and amelioration of airport infrastructure. The apex airport body, the Airport Authority of India (AAI) authorises airports to collect or levy this fee.
As according to AAI, Greenfield airports like Hyderabad and Bangalore are levying the User Development Fee (UDF) from embarking passengers to fund the viability gap of these airports.
DIAL and MIAL have also been authorised by the Government to levy UDF from embarking passengers at Delhi and Mumbai airports to fund modernization of Delhi and Mumbai airports.
According to AAI, the Delhi Airport can currently levy Rs 200 for a domestic passenger and Rs 1300 for an international passenger. For context, the country’s second biggest airport, the Mumbai Airport can levy Rs 100 from domestic passengers and Rs 600 from international passengers.
What are the proposed changes?
The airport operator has proposed to charge double the User Development Fee (UDF) from international business and first-class passengers.
This said increase could happen in a phased manner, over the next few years.
It is not just international, but a demand has also been raised to raise the UDF for all domestic passengers travelling during the morning and evening peak hours.
Here, travelling that transpires from 05:00 hrs to 08:55 hrs and then in the evening from 17:00 hrs to 20:55 hrs have been classified as ‘peak hours’.
The GMR group-led authority has proposed that business and first-class passengers pay Rs 1,620 as UDF in 2025-26 and 2026-27 and Rs 860 in 2027-28 and 2028-29.
Similarly, the proposed UDF for international economy and premium economy passengers is Rs 810 in 2025-26 and 2026-27, which will be reduced to Rs 430 in 2027-28 and 2028-29.
In addition, the proposed UDF for international economy and premium economy passengers is Rs 810 in 2025-26 and 2026-27, which will be reduced to Rs 430 in 2027-28 and 2028-29.
What are the other components of your flight ticket?
In addition to the UDF or User Development fee, the other costs that add up to your air ticket, in addition to the basic travel charges are the air-fuel or ATF (Aviation Turbine Fuel) charge. It also includes a fee on Passenger Service and Security.
In addition, the ticket also contains a fee called Common User Terminal Equipment or CUTE, which is levied for the cost of using the airport’s escalators, metal detectors, and other equipment.
