Adani-operated Navi Mumbai International Airport (NMIAL) has received a green light from the country’s civil aviation ministry’s tariff regulatory body to increase domestic user development fees (UDFs) by 6% from April next year. The operator itself had proposed a 20% hike from 1 April 2027. Navi Mumbai airport’s UDFs are already the second-highest of any major Indian airport after GMR-run Hyderabad airport.
On Wednesday, the Airports Economic Regulatory Authority (AERA) approved the user domestic fees for the airport. It said between 1 June 2026 and 31 March 2027, domestic passengers departing from Navi Mumbai airport will pay a fee of ₹620 while arriving passengers will pay ₹270. These are the same rates passengers are paying at present.
Navi Mumbai airport can increase its prices by 6% From 1 April 2027 to 31 March 2031, taking the UDF to ₹738 for domestic passengers departing from the airport and ₹322 for those arriving. It did not seek a UDF hike between 1 July 2026 and 31 March 2027. Built at a cost of ₹19,650 crore, the airport began operations on 25 December 2025.
Why new airports charge more
A week ago, Aera allowed a 10% annual increase in UDFs for Noida International Airport, owned by Zurich Airport International AG, which is expected to start commercial operations on 15 June. Domestic passengers departing from the airport will pay ₹490 and while those arriving will pay ₹210.
Navi Mumbai airport’s UDFs are already higher than Noida International Airport’s, and are the second highest in the country after GMR-run Hyderabad airport, which charges ₹750 for domestic departures. Bengaluru airport’s Rs-550 UDF for domestic departures is the third-highest amongst major airports, followed by Kolkata ( ₹547) and Chennai ( ₹491).
UDFs are significantly lower at Delhi’s GMR-run Indira Gandhi International Airport ( ₹129 and ₹56), and Mumbai’s Adani-run Chattrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport ( ₹175 and ₹75), which are among India’s first airports to be privatized.
Generally, airlines collect UDFs from passengers as part of the ticket fare and pass them on to airport operators. Airport charges for greenfield airports are generally on the higher side in the initial years to support the recovery of investments and for viable airport operations, as compared to a mature brownfield airport, Adani-owned NMIAL said in a statement. Therefore, the tariff structure of a greenfield airport cannot be directly compared with an established running brownfield airports with significantly higher traffic volumes, it added.
At least one consultant said comparing UDFs across airports was ‘unfair’, but added that the recovery period needs to be spread out. “The comparison in user development fees between Navi Mumbai and Noida or Navi Mumbai and Delhi or Mumbai is a bit unfair. Airports like Delhi and Mumbai are older, mature airports. So recovery of substantial costs must have happened. So yes, that logic that users pay higher fees for capital cost requirements in the initial years is right,” said Gurmukh Singh Bawa, secretary general of Air Travellers Association.
“But in the current context, should the control period or recovery period be only five years? If you ask me, it should be a 10-year period, since the life of the building or construction is much more. This would reduce the UDF burden on passengers and make some of these new airports more competitive,” he said.