The Airports Economic Regulatory Authority (Aera) has given its approval to a plan to increase aeronautical charges for Mumbai Airport by 154 per cent and allowed the introduction of user development fee (UDF) on the passengers going out of the city trough the airport.

The hike will take effect from February 1 and decision will be implemented for a period of one year. The aeronautical charges for the airport include those for parking, landing, fuel throughput and common check-in terminals.

Estimates show that the domestic passengers will have to churn out Rs 346 more while the international passengers will have to pay Rs 692 more on their tickets. The authority also said that the passengers will pay a lower UDF of Rs 274 and Rs 548 for domestic and international travel, respectively from 1 April, 2013 to 31 March, 2014.

AERA also allowed the airport authority to impose penalties on the airlines that overstay at the airport. The increase will result in an increase of 5 to 7 per cent on domestic fares of Rs 5,000-7,000 from Mumbai. The increase is much lesser than that sort by the Mumbai International Airport Ltd (MIAL). The MIAL was asking the authority to permit increasing the rates by 872 per cent at the airport.