Parliament passes Airports Economic Regulatory Authority of India (Amendment) Bill -2019

Parliament has passed the Airports Economic Regulatory Authority of India, AERA (Amendment) Bill- 2019. The bill increases the threshold of annual passenger traffic for major airports from 15 lakh to over 35 lakh passengers. 

Earlier, the Airports Economic Regulatory Authority of India Act, 2008 defines a major airport as one with annual passenger traffic over 15 lakh, or any other airports as notified by the central government. 

As per the



provision of the bill, the Authority will not determine the tariff, tariff structures, or the development fees, in cases where these amounts were a part of the bid document on the basis of which the airport operations were awarded. 

Speaking on the bill, Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said, the threshold has been increased as the number of air traffic passenger has been increased 117 million from 2008 to 345 million now.