AAI all set to charge UDF at 11 airports: Sources

There is some bad news for passengers travelling by air. The Airport Authority of India (AAI) is all set to submit a list of 11 airports where a users development fees (UDF) will be charged, reported CNBC-TV18 quoting sources.

Here is a verbatim transcript of Swati Khandelwal's comments on CNBC-TV18. Also watch the accompanying video.

Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel had hinted sometime back in Parliament that the Airports Authority of India (AAI) will be charging a UDF. Now we understand from sources that AAI has shortlisted at least 11 airports where they would be charging the UDF.

These airports are all non-metro airports, namely, Jaipur, Udaipur, Amritsar, Trichy, Vizag, Mangalore, Trivandrum, Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Lucknow and

Varanasi.  

So flying to all these places will be now expensive. According to sources, the UDF charges for domestic travelers would be in the range of Rs 300 per airport. The international passengers will be charged in the range of USD 20 per passenger. Clearly, it not so good news in for people who are looking at traveling to these places. On the question of when is it going to be levied-out of these 11 airports four airports are already commissioned--so the moment the Ministry of Civil Aviation approves the UDF charges they will be charged on these airports. However, at the other airports the charges will be levied as and when the commissioning happens.