PASSENGERS using air transport now have to pay more after the Civil Aviation Authority of Zimbabwe introduced an Aviation Infrastructure Development Fund levy to raise money to rehabilitate infrastructure.

The fee, which becomes effective on Wednesday, will see domestic passengers paying US$5 while international travellers  fork out US$15 more.

CAAZ is seeking to raise US$400 million to spruce up deteriorating infrastructure.

Air travellers are already paying US$10 and US$25 airport passenger fee per domestic and international flight, respectively.

The new rules are contained in a Statutory Instrument of a Government Gazette published by Transport, Communication and Infrastructural Development Minister Nicholas Goche last Friday.

The regulations, to be cited as the Civil Aviation (Aviation Infrastructure Development Fund Fee) Regulations 2012 were made in terms of section 79 of the Civil Aviation Act.

"Subject to subsection (3) below, no person shall depart from any aerodrome on an aircraft unless he has paid the Aviation Infrastructure Fund fee (a) if he/she is a passenger on a domestic flight, in the sum of five United States dollars (b) if he/she is a passenger on an international flight, in the sum of fifteen United States dollars," read the regulations.

"All airlines shall levy Infrastructure Development Fund fee on both the domestic and international tickets issued on and after 1st February 2012, pilots of non-scheduled and private flights shall collect the fees from their non exempt passengers and pay at the airport payment office before departure."

The regulations will not, however, apply to children under the age of two years, persons approved by the Foreign Affairs Minister, a visiting Head of State and Government and his spouse and aircraft crew for public transport.

There are penalties for those who fail to comply with the new regulations.

A domestic passenger will be fined US$20 or one month in prison or both while a passenger on an international flight will be liable to a fine not exceeding US$75 or imprisonment not exceeding three months or both.

Commenting on the regulations yesterday, CAAZ chief executive officer Mr David Chawota said they will go a long way in improving the aviation infrastructure.

"This is an issue of starting a programme that will turnaround our infrastructure. We have a programme that should run for 10 years and are expecting to raise US$400 million that will cater for the infrastructure," said Mr Chawota.

"We want to rehabilitate infrastructure and that cannot be done by the current revenue, we require a special fund for that and the projects will be implemented in consultation with all stakeholders."

Zimbabwe Tourism Authority chief executive officer Mr Karikoga Kaseke lamented the increase, saying it would affect travelling.

"It's an added expense on travellers, although we were consulted by CAAZ, we did not object but any expense will reduce the number of travellers," said Mr Kaseke.

He said passengers were already paying airport service fees and the latest addition would affect volumes of passengers and ultimately tourism. But Mr Chawota disagreed, saying the fee was good for tourism because good infrastructure attracts more tourists.

"The bottom line is that they won't have tourists if there is no infrastructure. We can go and scream but everybody has been seeing the infrastructure going down and this fund will not disturb tourism but will bring more tourists. Those in the tourism industry will actually make more money because of this fund," he said.

Last year, CAAZ deferred the introduction of the infrastructure development fund fee to allow consultations on how much should be levied.

CAAZ had proposed US$10 for domestic passengers and US$30 on international passengers drawing a public outcry.