This, however, will be for the initial three months after which the charges would be reviewed.

The ministry said: “BIAL will cap UDF at Rs 955 plus taxes (total of Rs 1,070 including taxes) from departing international passengers. It will not charge domestic passengers for initial three months”.

Interestingly, the new Hyderabad airport, which has started functioning, has not been charging either the domestic or international passengers. The ministry has approved a flat Rs 1,000 (inclusive of taxes) to be levied on international passengers and told the airport operator GMR not to charge the domestic passengers. GMR, however, said it won’t charge even the international passengers initially.

Speaking informally to reporters soon after this announcement, Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel said the ministry will review the charges. “We will definitely review the UDF after three months. In normal circumstances we would not have done so but for Bangalore and Hyderabad airports we will do so. Even if the Airports Economic Regulatory Authority was set up by then, we can still take a call on UDF,” Patel said. “When passengers’ interests are involved, no body can do dadagiri,” he remarked.

The minister defended the new ground handling policy for the new Bangalore and Hyderabad airports and said this was any way bound to have come into effect from January 1, 2009.

New policy

He disclosed that a new “greenfield airport policy” is likely to be approved by Union Cabinet in April. “This will address all the contentious issues such as the closure of the second airport in a city, UDF, whether there should be an airport within 150 km of the first etc.