Bangalore International Airport Ltd (BIAL), developers of the city?s greenfield airport, on Friday strongly defended levying a user development fee (UDF) under the terms of its concession and other agreements with the government.
The company, which proposes to launch commercial operations from the new airport at Devanahalli from midnight March 29, however, has reduced the fee for both domestic and international passengers. The former would now pay Rs 360 instead of Rs 675, and the latter Rs 550 instead of Rs 950, said CEO Albert Brunner.
Civil aviation secretary Ashok Chawla also supported the UDF, though he declined to elaborate on the matter.
Brunner was speaking to FE after the maiden test flight of Kingfisher Airlines from Mumbai landed at Devanahalli. Brunner?s statement comes close on the heels of the parliamentary standing committee on civil aviation describing the UDF as ?irrational? and ?illogical?.
?We are entitled to recover the UDF and have a right to increase it periodically under our existing agreements. In fact, there has been strong objection from IATA over different UDFs for domestic and international travellers. The UDF is essential to recover whatever has been spent so far on the airport?s infrastructure and also for future expansion,? said Brunner.
He said BIAL?s decision should not be compared with Hyderabad International Airport Ltd?s move not to recover a UDF at this time from domestic travellers flying out of the new Shamsabad International Airport. He made it clear that BIAL would challenge any move to halt the recovery of UDF.
Brunner said that the airport?s first phase entailed an investment of close to Rs 3,500 crore and would handle 11 million passengers, annually. ?I will take up the proposal for the second phase envisaging an investment of another Rs 3,500 crore to the BIAL board by August. This will cater to 15 million passengers, annually,? he said.
(Travel for this story was sponsored by Kingfisher Airlines)