User fee at Adani’s Thiruvananthapuram airport up 50% from July 1

Flying out of the Adani-controlled Thiruvananthapuram airport will get costlier from July 1 as the user development fee levied on passengers as part of air tickets will go up by 50% from ₹506 to ₹770 for domestic travellers for a year and further raised every subsequent year. The Thiruvananthapuram Kerala International Airport Ltd is owned by Adani Airport Holdings Limited, incorporated in 2019 as a 100% subsidiary of Adani Enterprises Limited, that controls eight airports. The authority determines tariff for an airport or a group of airports with passenger traffic of at least 35 lakh per annum every five years after considering the investment and expenditure incurred by the airport operator, and the tariff determination period varies from one airport to another. In its June order, the AERA has also pulled up TKIAL for awarding the master concessionaire to its own holding company, Adani Airport Holding Limited, for F&B and retail services and said it “did not have direct experience of handling such services and may have to engage other experienced operators for the provision of different services,” adding that no advantage has been granted to the air travellers through cross-subsidisation.