The Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) has increased the aviation security fee (ASF) from Rs.130 to Rs.150 for all the Indian passengers starting from July 1 this year. It means that traveling out of the Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) in Bengaluru will become costlier.
The hike is really quite frustrating for regular globetrotters as KIA hiked around 120% user development fee recently for departing international and domestic passengers.
MoCA Holds Meeting With Airport Operators For Finalizing Procedures
According to reports, authorities at MoCA recently held a meeting with the operators at the airport for finalizing the standard procedures and making collection and utilization of ASF streamlined. The hike in ASF is bound to affect all the airports across the country. Travel agents are of the opinion that the impact will be low on domestic travel as compared to international travel.
After the collapse of Jet Airways, there has been a price rise in the recent months in air travel especially between key metro cities in the country including Bengaluru and also a few West-Asian destinations with heavy traffic such as Abu Dhabi and Dubai. Due to the 15% hike in ASF, these prices are going to increase further making air-traveling economically distressing to many.
ASF To Replace Previous PSF
The document issued by MoCA states that for the international passengers the ASF is expected to go up from $3.25 to $4.85 from July 1.
Cleartrip.com senior vice-president, Balu Ramachandran said, “Air ticket prices to international destinations will be only marginally impacted due to the hike in airport security fee. For short-haul routes with ticket price around Rs 10,000, the increase in one-way fare will be only around 1%. In the last few months, we have seen an average 16% price increase in outbound flights from India, with some sectors being impacted due to Jet Airways’ collapse. This has had a significant impact on demand and volume, compared to the change in security fee.”
The document also says that the ASF will replace the earlier passenger security fee (PSF) the airports were charging until now.
