Monday, December 04, 2017

Taxiing at India's top 6 airports to cost airlines Rs 2K cr a year by 2021

New Delhi: An average 15 minutes of taxiing at six of the busiest airports in the country is likely to cost airlines Rs 2,000 crore annually by 2021, compelling them to explore ways to reduce fuel consumption and switch to greener ways of steering the aircraft on the ground. 

According to a study, the total fuel burnt is likely to increase by 40 per cent by 2021--going up from 1,67,000 tonnes in 2016 to 2,34,000 tonnes--as airlines expand their operations.


Of the total 85 operational airports in the country, airports at Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, and Kolkata handle nearly 65 per cent of the total air traffic.

The cost of fuel burnt is likely to go up from Rs 1,400 crore in 2016 to nearly Rs 2,000 crore in 2021, according to the findings of the study carried out by Ashwani Khanna, vice-president, Delhi International Airport Limited.

Khanna, who was sharing his research at an event conducted by the Aeronautical Society of India, has taken into account the taxiing time of aircraft departing from the top six airports and calculated the cost of fuel burnt while taxiing at Rs 1,400 per minute for a narrow body aircraft and Rs 3,100 per minute for a widebody aircraft.

The fuel burn will also take its toll on the environment as carbon emissions register a proportionate increase of 40 per cent by 2021--up from 5,27,000 tonne to 7,39,000 tonne, the study said.

Aviation experts fear that with airport infrastructure failing to keep pace with the growth in traffic, waiting time for aircraft is only bound to increase and there is unlikely to be any respite for airlines in terms of expenditure on fuel.
04/12/17 PTI/Business Standard
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