Adani-controlled Thiruvananthapuram airport collects record ₹383 crore user fee from passengers in 2025

Passengers using the Thiruvananthapuram international airport continue to pay the highest amount of the user development fee, with the airport operator, Adani Airport Holdings Limited (AAHL), charging a hefty fee for both embarking and disembarking passengers. According to the statistics available with the Ministry of Civil Aviation, the airport operator has collected a record ₹383.26crore from the passengers in 2025, the highest among the six recently privatised airports in the country.

In Thiruvananthapuram, a domestic passenger using the airport will have to pay ₹770 for embarking and ₹330 for disembarking, while the rate is at ₹1,540 for an embarking international passenger and ₹660 for a disembarking international passenger. Considering the user fee charged by other airports in the country along with three other international airports in Kerala, the fee levied on the passengers in the Thiruvananthapuram airport is one of the highest in the country.

Lowest in Kochi

The total user fee collected from passengers in five other privatised airports in the country in 2025 —Ahmedabad (₹345.31 crore), Jaipur (₹295.62 crore), Lucknow (₹260.59 crore), Guwahati ₹208.17 crore), and Mangaluru (₹111.58 crore) — are less than that of Thiruvananthapuram. In Kerala, the lowest user fee is charged by the Cochin international airport, where ₹270 is charged on a domestic passenger and ₹570 on an international passenger. The fee charge at the Kannur international airport is also one of the highest in the country.

The Airports Economic Regulatory Authority of India (AERA), set up by the Union government under the AERA Act, 2008 determines aeronautical charges in all airports, including user fee, considering the factors such as return on investment for aeronautical assets, operating expenditure, depreciation, tax etc. The tariff for aeronautical services is determined by AERA multi-year tariff proposal submitted by the airport operators, which comes into effect after getting notified through the Aeronautical Information Circular issued by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).

The AERA had granted permission to revise the user fee charged on passengers at the Thiruvananthapuram airport, as part of the air ticket fare, by approximately 50% on June 21, 2024 for a period of five years from April 1, 2022 to March 31, 2027. It was the first revision for the airport since its privatisation. The AAHL controls a total of eight airports in the country.