The government on Thursday slashed the landing and user charges at airports, especially for aircraft with less than 80 seats and helicopters to make air travel affordable and increase connectivity to smaller areas.
The landing charges have been reduced by 15 per cent of the current rates for domestic flights subject to the condition that airport charges are paid within the credit period of 15 days.
Besides, airside user charges at five airports declared as international airports with effect from May 2002, excluding Bangalore and Goa would continue at the same rates as those of domestic airports till March 31, 2005.
After this, it would be reviewed in relation to the facilities set up at these airports, an official release said.
This rule would however, not apply to the airports at Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai and Thiruvananthapuram.
Significantly, aircraft with less than 80 seating capacity and helicopters have been exempted from paying any landing charges.
Also, route navigation facility charges of 20 per cent of the applicable rates of weight-cum-distance-formula would be levied on aircraft with maximum all-up-weight of upto 10,000 kg.
For those over 10,000 kg and up to 20,000 kg, 40 per cent charge would be levied.
The new measures, announced by Civil Aviation Minister Rajiv Pratap Rudy, were expected to bring down the operating costs of the scheduled domestic carriers, thus reducing their cost of operations.
It is expected that the benefits out of the reduced charges would be passed on to the passengers, the release said.