Delhi Airport is one of the better airports around India, but one of the most expensive ones as well. The airport charges about INR 232 – 550 to domestic passengers, while they charge between INR 518 to INR 1270 for an international passenger. These are called the UDF (User Development Fee).
Compare this with Mumbai, where you pay about INR 300 for a domestic departure.
It seems that the Airport regulator in India, AERA, has now asked the Delhi Airport operator GMR Group to reduce the charges at Delhi Airport by about 78%. In the past few years, Delhi was allowed to charge astronomical rates because they had done a lot of capital expenditure in bringing up the airport, which needed to be recovered.
Of course, if this fees goes down, Delhi can finally dream of becoming a hub airport. Many airlines stopped flying to Delhi also quoting Delhi being one of the most expensive airports around the world to fly into.
Delhi has already had to reduce the Airport Development fee, which is another fee charged in Delhi only, in 2013. In fact, passengers were even offered a refund.
Bottomline: If Delhi Airport becomes cheaper, it will only help them get more aircraft movements a day and hence more passengers. For passengers, this will reduce the cost of flying by quite a bit.
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