Tier-II airports have failed to take off

Bangalore: Are airfields in Tier-II cities like Mangalore, Mysore, Hassan and Belgaum getting neglected with the government’s focus squarely fixed on more lucrative airports in metros? Yes, according to civil aviation experts.
The central government is reluctant to allocate sizeable funds to Tier-II city airports because air passenger growth at these airports is still slow compared to metros, said an expert who did not want to be named.
“Not many airlines want to fly to smaller towns like Mangalore, Mysore, Hassan, Belgaum and others because of the lower rate of growth there. One of the reasons is that the road network is now well-developed and people prefer to travel by road than fly on short-haul routes. This could be why the Centre is shying away from spending on these airports,” he said.
The reluctance shown by private companies to participate in modernising smaller airports have stunted the latter’s development in comparison to major airports like Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Chennai and Bangalore.
The Airports Authority of India (AAI) spent Rs3534.62 crore in the 10th Plan and is expecting to spend Rs12417.17 crore in the 11th Plan period. Currently, Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad and Bangalore are operated by private companies, along with AAI, under the private public partnership (PPP) model. On the other hand, the government has not been able to rope in private partners for most of the Tier-II airports.
24/05/10 Daily News & Analysis

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Categories: Airports May 2010