Passenger service fee increase pinches your airfare budget

One of the several fees charged on your air ticket is the 'passenger service fee'. This fee has been on the rise since the last three years and in some airports the hike has been nearly 50%.

Passenger service fee is primarily utilised for meeting the cost of deployment of security personnel such as CISF at airports.

In Delhi Airport, the passenger service fees has increased by 8.9% from 2013-14 to 2014-15 and by a large 32.9% from 2014-15 to 2015-16. While in 2013-14 the fee was Rs 212.90 and increased to Rs 232.06 in 2014-15. This further grew to Rs 308.63 in 2015-16.

At Mumbai Airport, the passenger service fees saw a rise of 7% from 2013-14 to 2014-15 and increased by 11.5% in 2015-16. The fee charged in 2013-14 stood at Rs 196.94 and grew to Rs 210.73 in 2014-15, which finally jumped to Rs 238.13 in 2015-16.

At Bangalore Airport, the passenger service fee saw a 20.8% rise from 2013-14 to 2014-15 and 24.4% rise 2014-15 to 2015-16. The fees stood at Rs 82.37 in 2013-14, to Rs 99.54 in 2014-15 and Rs 123.78 in 2015-16.

Hyderabad Airport's passenger fee increased by 15.6% in 2014-15 and 47.8% in 2015-16. The passenger service fee increased from Rs 60.10 to Rs 69.52 in 2014-15 and Rs 102.79 in 2015-16.

The passenger service fee at Nagpur Airport grew to 9.9% in 2014-15 and further by 12% in 2015-16. While in Cochin Airport the fee had increased by 21.5% in 2014-15 and 20.9% in 2015-16.

“As of now there is no proposal under consideration to increase the rate of Passenger service fees (security component),” said Ashok Gajapathi Raju, Minister of Civil Aviation.