The Mumbai International Airport Ltd (MIAL) has proposed levying an ad-hoc user development fee (UDF) of INR 200 and INR 500 for every domestic and international outbound passenger, respectively, starting from January 1, 2021, to make up for losses arising due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

MIAL has written to the Airports Economic Regulatory Authority (AERA), the regulator for charges linked to aviation, saying “cash shortfall for meeting operational expenses” due to extremely low levels of air traffic in pandemic times has resulted in the loss of both aeronautical and non-aero revenues. The ad-hoc fee has been sought to “ensure economic and viable operations of (the) airport”.

For every international departure, MIAL has proposed INR 500 as ad-hoc UDF taking the total payable UDF (adding the current outbound UDF of INR 116) to INR 616. For international tickets issued in foreign currency, the ad-hoc proposed for every departing passenger is USD7.23 in addition to UDF of USD1.68, taking the total to USD8.91.

However, AERA has asked for stakeholder comments on MIAL’s annual tariff plan for the third control period of April 1, 2019, to March 31, 2024, which includes this ad-hoc UDF. The regulator will take a call on this issue, including whether the ad-hoc UDF should be allowed and if so how much, after considering the same.

MIAL has proposed that airlines will be eligible for this collection fee only if they give passenger data in a certain timeframe. And for a delay in giving this data, the airport operator has proposed a daily penalty of INR 10,000 on airlines.