AAI’s airport modernisation plan to miss slated deadline

Mumbai: The government’s plan for modernisation of 35 non-metro airports might fall prey to the current economic downturn. These 35 airports which were to be upgraded and modernised by the Airport Authority of India (AAI) by 2009-2010, might not be complete by the slated deadline. According to a report in today’s Indian Express by Smita Aggarwal, the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) is in the process of prioritising some of the more commercially viable and important airports from among these 35 airports. “Under current circumstances, AAI is constrained as air traffic has fallen sharply, resulting in lower revenues. It does not have as many resources as before. We will have to now prioritise some of the airports for upgradation and modernisation process. The Ministry is likely to come up with an internal shortlist of airports to be put on a fast-track very soon,” a government source told Indian Express. Meanwhile, modernisation work has already begun at some of the airports. Under the modernisation process, AAI was to undertake terminal building and air side infrastructure development at these airports- Amritsar, Ahmedabad, Bhopal, Chandigarh, Jaipur, Lucknow, Nagpur, Pune, Varanasi, Port Blair, Agartala and Dehradun.
Due to reduction in flights and passenger flow, AAI saw a sharp reduction in the revenue on account of airport charges. AAI's revenues decreased by Rs 228 crore during April to September 2008 as compared to the corresponding period in 2007.
12/01/09 TRavelBizMonitor

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Categories: Airports Jan 2009