Smaller towns may be ticket to growth for foreign carriers

New Delhi: Airports in smaller Indian cities and towns such as Chandigarh and Bagdogra are set to start handling international flights, as several new and existing low-fare foreign airlines seek to expand operations in the country.
The civil aviation ministry has so far this year allowed three such airports to put up immigration counters and other facilities needed for handling foreign routes. Several more are to follow.
Bhutan’s Druk Air Corp. Ltd on Friday launched its inaugural flight between Paro in Bhutan and Bagdogra, a town in West Bengal’s Darjeeling district.
Currently, only around two dozen of India’s 127 airports are equipped to handle international flights. Many of these are run by the Airports Authority of India, or AAI.
“We are creating customs and immigration facilities and asking other agencies to co-operate in the process,” said a senior government official involved in the process.
The official, who didn’t want to be named, said the government has already granted permission to several airlines, many of them low-fare carriers, from countries that are part of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or Asean, to fly to 18 tourist destinations in India.
These include Port Blair in the Andaman and Nicobar islands, Bhubaneswar in Orissa, and Aurangabad in Maharashtra. None of the airports in these places currently handle international flights.
The Chandigarh and Madurai airports will be ready to handle international flights by October, a senior AAI board member said. He declined to comment on the investments required to upgrade the facilities and potential additional revenues for these airports from the international traffic.
Upgrading airports in the cities and towns to handle foreign flights involves setting up of immigration counters in coordination with the ministry of home affairs, customs duty counters in coordination with the ministry of finance, and ensuring security services as guided by the respective state governments.
The Boeing 737-800 or Airbus A320 type of aircraft require no major aeronautical infrastructure changes at airports as many of these already host domestic flights that operate these category of aircraft.
20/06/09 Tarun Shukla/Livemint

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Categories: Airports Jun 2009, Foreign Jun 2009