It's a New Year bonanza for passengers flying from Delhi airport.
The Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has said that the excess money collected as Development Fee should be refunded to those who had booked their tickets before January 1, 2013 but whose travel was on or after the New Year.
Fee cut from Jan 1
This follows the airport cutting the Development Fee for departing passengers by 50 per cent from January 1.
Now, each passenger taking an international flight out of Delhi airport pays Rs 600 instead of Rs 1,200 and a domestic passenger Rs 100 instead of the Rs 200 he had to pay earlier.
The airline watchdog has “directed” the airlines to refund this excess amount collected by them.
An Air India spokesman said that its passengers will have to go to the airline’s office and present the ticket, pointing out that an excess amount has been charged as Development Fee and the refund will be immediate.
“In the case of a ticket being issued by a travel agent, the agent will have to give the refund,” sources said.
An e-mail sent to major domestic airlines, including Jet Airways, SpiceJet and IndiGo, seeking comments on the DGCA’s directive remained unanswered. Delhi airport sees about 1.4 million passengers departing each day.
Payout for airlines
In effect, this means airlines operating out of Delhi may have to pay Rs 30 lakh a day to domestic passengers who travelled on or after January 1 but who had booked their tickets before the first of this month.
For departing international passengers, the payout would be Rs 90 lakh a day.
>ashwini.phadnis@thehindu.co.in
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