Bengaluru Airport hikes user fee for domestic, international flyers from Tuesday - Check revised charges

Bengaluru Airport User Fee: Flying out from Bengaluru airport will now cost more as the user development fee (UDF) on every passenger has been revised by 120 per cent for domestic departures and by 129 per cent for international departures from Tuesday onwards. The revised UDF for domestic flyers will be Rs 306, while the same for international departures will be Rs 1,226 at the Kempegowda international airport, according to its operator.

The Bangalore International Airport Ltd (BIAL) statement said, "The UDF has been revised to Rs 306 from Rs 139 for domestic departures and to Rs 1,226 from Rs 508 for international departures on every passenger flying out of Bengaluru from April 16." 

The third busiest airport after New Delhi and Mumbai, BIAL plans to use the additional fee to fund its expansion, said a PTI report, quoting the BIAL statement on Monday as "With the Aera order coming into effect from April 16, the UDF for domestic departures will be revised to Rs 306 from Rs 139 while for international departures it will be Rs 1,226 from Rs 558 earlier." 

The revised fee is applicable for tickets procured between April 16 and August 15, and the increased fee will be rolled back from August 16, said the report.

PTI report quoted Hari Marar, the managing director and chief executive, as saying "This incremental increase in charges will provide us with the much-needed relief as we are in the midst of a Rs 13,000-crore capacity expansion." He further added that as mandated by Aera (Airports Economic Regulatory Authority), the money generated from the incremental UDF hike during these four months, will be deposited in a separate bank account and will be used only to fund the ongoing expansion.

Rs 13,000-crore second phase expansion entails construction of a new terminal, a second runway, access roads, and a multi-modal transport hub, which is scheduled to be completed by March 2021, the report said.

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Notably, the Kempegowda International Airport commenced operations in May 2008 and is the second airport build on a PPP model after Kochi, which was commissioned in the late 1990s. The airport reportedly handled 26.91 million passengers in FY18, and is one of the fastest growing in the world.