New Delhi: A paradoxical situation prevails in India’s civil aviation sector today. The growth in airline passengers is robust. In the last 10 years, the volume of passenger traffic has more than trebled. If forecasts are to be believed, it is slated to grow three times in the next 10 years as well. But the irony is that while passengers will keep growing, the airport infrastructure has already begun creaking under the strain and will surely be unable to cope with the increasing pressure of passenger volume growth.
A possible outcome of this stark discrepancy between the rising volume of passengers and choking airport infrastructure is that India’s airports will look more like its railway stations unable to cope with the passenger load. An alternative scenario is that the problems afflicting airport infrastructure could slow down the growth in airline passengers in the coming decade. Neither of the outcomes is desirable. Ideally, immediate efforts should be made to expand the airport infrastructure before it can constrain passenger growth, causing collateral damages to economic growth in general.
How serious is the airport infrastructure problem? A study conducted by the Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation (CAPA) on behalf of Tata SIA Airlines Limited has produced some numbers that are quite alarming as far as the country’s airport infrastructure is concerned. In around five years, it says, the capacity of existing airports in almost all the large cities will be fully utilised. Even if new terminals are added and new runways are built, these will be short-term palliatives. By 2025, most of India’s large cities would require a second airport, and Mumbai may need a third airport by 2030.
13/10/15 AK Bhattacharya/Business Standard
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A possible outcome of this stark discrepancy between the rising volume of passengers and choking airport infrastructure is that India’s airports will look more like its railway stations unable to cope with the passenger load. An alternative scenario is that the problems afflicting airport infrastructure could slow down the growth in airline passengers in the coming decade. Neither of the outcomes is desirable. Ideally, immediate efforts should be made to expand the airport infrastructure before it can constrain passenger growth, causing collateral damages to economic growth in general.
How serious is the airport infrastructure problem? A study conducted by the Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation (CAPA) on behalf of Tata SIA Airlines Limited has produced some numbers that are quite alarming as far as the country’s airport infrastructure is concerned. In around five years, it says, the capacity of existing airports in almost all the large cities will be fully utilised. Even if new terminals are added and new runways are built, these will be short-term palliatives. By 2025, most of India’s large cities would require a second airport, and Mumbai may need a third airport by 2030.
13/10/15 AK Bhattacharya/Business Standard
