Travel for IGIA passengers to turn costlier from mid-April | Delhi News – The Times of India

New Delhi: All passengers flying in and out of Indira Gandhi International Airport will have to pay a higher user development fee (UDF) from April 16 but not as much as Delhi International Airport Ltd had proposed. While international passengers travelling in business and first class will have to pay marginally more than those doing so in economy and premium economy, domestic passengers will pay a fee depending on the flight time.
The Airport Economic Regulatory Authority (AERA) issued a tariff order on Friday in which the UDF proposed by DIAL was pared down significantly. The current UDF is Rs 61 with taxes for both domestic and international departures. While the airport operator had proposed to raise UDF up to Rs 610 for domestic and Rs 1,620 plus taxes for international passengers, AERA said that from April 16 to March 31, 2029, domestic passengers will pay a UDF of Rs 129 for flying out and Rs 56 for flying in (taxes extra). International passengers in economy and premium economy will be charged a UDF of Rs 650 for flying out and Rs 275 for flying in (taxes extra) and those in business and first class will be charged Rs 810 and Rs 345 (taxes extra) for flying out and in, respectively.
In its tariff proposal, DIAL had sought UDF for arriving passengers too. “Levying some portion of UDF on disembarking passengers helps reduce aeronautical tariff charged under other heads, especially landing charges. Airport facility is used by both passengers. Facility used by disembarking is less,” the order noted, deciding to keep the UDF ratio at 70:30.
DIAL has also sought a higher UDF for flights in the peak hours of 5-8.55 morning and evening. While in principle agreeing with this, AERA said it would be “premature” to implement it at this time.
To the airlines expressing reservation on class-wise UDF because economy passengers were often bumped up to business, AERA reassured that UDF would be based on ticket issued.
In its letter proposing the hikes to AERA, DIAL had pleaded that it was incurring losses with the current financial year expected to see a loss of over Rs 1,500 crore. “DIAL recently completed Phase 3A expansion project incurring huge capital expenditure in excess of Rs 12,500 crore, considerable portion of which is from borrowings,” the letter said, pointing out that at Dec-end 2024, DIAL had outstanding debt in excess of Rs 15,000 crore, of which one series of bonds totalling $522 million would mature for payment in Oct 2026.