Why flying out of Delhi is a double whammy for passengers

Expect a double whammy for passengers flying in and out of the Delhi International Airport from 15 May.

Taking a flight or arriving at the Delhi Airport will get costlier not only because of a higher user development fee (UDF) that will be charged by the airport, but also because airlines are expected to pass on much of the increase in landing and parking charges to passengers.

According to initial estimates, the charges airlines have to pay for landing and parking planes have been hiked to more than double. A portion of this price increase will certainly find its way into your ticket cost, over and above the UDF increase. And it’s not just Delhi; flying out of Mumbai is set to become more expensive since the Airports Economic Regulatory Authority of India will now begin a three-month consultation process for hiking user charges at Mumbai International Airport (MIAL) also.

As for Delhi, airport sources said that from 15 May, a passenger will have to shell out only Rs 320 as UDF for a domestic flight, while for an international flight it would be about Rs 850. But that is an average of all hikes across all slabs, and actual increase would obviously be higher depending on the distance travelled and whether you are flying to a local or a foreign destination.

Meanwhile, DIAL said in a statement that though welcome, this revision in charges was much below its expectations. “Tariff calculations show that the approximate increase in ticket pricing on account of passenger fee per pax (passenger), for the year 2012-13, works out to Rs 290 on an average for domestic and Rs 580 on an average for international. Delhi airport will compare favourably to other major global airports where passenger fees range between $25(Rs 1300) to $ 30 (Rs 1560) on an average, thus making a very soft impact on the passengers.”

Claiming that DIAL was making losses due tothe delay in revising aeronautical charges as well as significant airline dues, the statement said that this increase will be a significant step in stemming losses and taking DIAL towards viability. It said that had the revision come into effect from 2009, as originally envisaged, the percentage increase for airlines and passengers would have been far lower.