Mangalore, Sep 2 (DHNS) : The Mangalore Airport authorities have started collecting user development fee from Wednesday.
Each passenger boarding domestic flights will have to pay Rs 150 and those boarding international flights will have to pay Rs 825. However, there are some exemptions. The fee is not applicable to incoming passengers.
Airport Director M R Vasudeva said that infants would be exempted from paying the fee.
Besides, diplomatic passport holders, crew of airlines on duty and transit passengers need not pay the fee. The user development fee will be in force for 10 years with effect from September 1.
Various airlines will collect the fee from the passengers and remit it to the Airports Authority of India (AAI). The fee includes service tax and collection charges of airlines too.
Vasudeva said that except very few, most of the passengers were aware of the user development fee (UDF) and the introduction of UDF went on smoothly on the first day on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, Air India Express (AIE) Station Manager Chellam Prasad said that the AIE had informed those passengers who had booked tickets in AIE offices, that the UDF will come to force from September 1. The New Integrated Terminal Building (NITB) at Mangalore airport was inaugurated by the Union Minister of State for Civil Aviation Praful Patel on May 15 and the terminal building was put into operation on August 2.
The maintenance cost of the new terminal building is estimated to be around Rs 75 lakh a month.
Opposed
Kerala Association of Travel Agents in a press release stated that the user fee imposed on all domestic and international passenger flights travelling from Mangalore airport is very high compared to the standard and air service facilities present in Mangalore airport at present.
Association Vice-President N A Sulaiman said that user fee which was in force at Karipur and Nedumbashery airports was withdrawn due to strong protests by the passengers.
AI to review cases sans income certificate
Air India will review the cases of the victims of the families of ill-fated Air India Express IX-812 flight who are unable to produce the income certificate of aircrash victims, said Air India Express Chief of Finance Kapil Aseri.
Speaking to Deccan Herald, on the sidelines of processing of compensation by the Mulla and Mulla, the legal counsel for Air India in Mangalore, he said “Nobody has come to us with problems related to having unable to get income certificate from the employee in Gulf countries. If anyone approaches us then we will definitely review the situation and see that what best can be done to help the families.”
He said that the counsel had called five families on Wednesday and one could not attend the process. The process went on till late evening. Aseri said that the counsel had paid the interim compensation to the families of the victims within six days of the tragedy. The compensation is calculated based on the income of the individual, age of the victim, dependents and so on, he added.