Karnataka   

Bangalore airport may stick to user development fee

BANGALORE: The user development fee proposed by Bangalore International Airport Ltd. (BIAL) on outbound domestic and international travellers is likely to stay, with BIAL insisting on its imposition.

BIAL has sent a proposal to the Union Civil Aviation Ministry seeking to levy user development fee of Rs. 675 on domestic travellers and Rs. 955 on international travellers.

The Karnataka Government, however, has expressed its reservation over levying hefty charges on outbound travellers. Speaking to reporters here on Thursday, BIAL CEO Albert Brunner said: “It is the core of our revenue stream without which the operations would not be viable.”

He said that BIAL had agreed for uniform landing and parking charges for aircraft that are applicable at all the airports across the country.

It had, on the other hand, been allowed to impose user development fee for domestic and international passengers as a part of concession agreement signed with the Government. “Some people say that we are going to get more passengers than what was projected when the agreement was signed. It is true. But it is also true that our investments on the airport increased from the estimated Rs. 1,400 crore to Rs. 2,400 crore at present,” Brunner said.

BIAL had incurred additional expenditure on construction of canopy, airline offices, landscaping and trumpet interchange, he added. Incidentally, the promoters of the international airport at Hyderabad have not proposed a user fee.

On the projected passenger traffic, he said: “Three forecasts that have been made so far have gone completely wrong.” BIAL would be handling around 10 million passengers in the first year of its operations, he added.

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