Delhi airport to hike charges for international business-class passengers from April 16

AERA allows Delhi airport to charge higher fees for business class passengers on international flights, rejecting variable tariff proposal.

In a first, the airport tariff regulatory body Airports Economic Regulatory Authority (AERA), has allowed Delhi airport to levy differential user charges by charging business class passengers on international flights a higher fee than those traveling in economy class on those flights.

However, the AERA has rejected the airport’s proposal for a variable tariff for peak-hour and non-peak hour travellers on domestic flights. The order issued on Friday (March 28, 2025) is for April 16, 2025, to March 31, 2029.

The user development fee levied on travellers as part of their air tickets for domestic passengers embarking from an airport is unchanged at ₹129. The fee for disembarking passenger fee is also being introduced for the first time at Delhi airport, which will be at ₹56.

International embarking passengers in economy class will pay ₹650, while for disembarking at an airport they will pay ₹275. Business class passengers on international flights will pay ₹810 when embarking from an Indian airport, and ₹345 when disembarking.

In its proposal, Delhi airport had suggested a fee of ₹405 for domestic embarking passengers during off-peak hours and ₹610 for peak hours. On international flights, it suggested ₹810 for economy class embarking passengers and ₹1,620 for embarking passengers travelling economy class.

Earlier, there was a flat rate levied only for embarking passengers of $1.93, which at the current rate would be approximately ₹164. The AERA has identified economy and premium economy as economy class in its order, and first class and business class passengers under the business class bracket.

In its tariff proposal before the AERA, Delhi airport submitted that it has been incurring losses and expects a loss in FY2025 to be over ₹1,500 core. It also said that at the end of December 2024, it had a huge outstanding debt in excess of ₹15,000 crore in part due to the expansion project incurring huge capital expenditure in excess of ₹12,500 crore and that it would not be able to generate sufficient cash at the existing rate to meet its obligations.