India currently has 133 airports including 28 Civil Enclaves. Of these, 109 airports are operational, and 24 airports are non-operational. The Govt. proposes to increase the number of airports in the country to 220 by 2025.
Vivek Anand Chourey, Executive Director (Operations), Airports Authority of India (AAI), spoke on the various developmental work being undertaken by the AAI at the PATA India’s 14th Update and Outlook Meeting.
Speaking on the development of new greenfield airports, Choure said Hollongi Airport is almost done, and the authority has received the license, the airport is therefore expected to be operational soon. Also, two more greenfield airports in Gujarat: Dholera and Hirasar are at the same pace and are expected to be operational soon.
Mentioning the new capacity figures, strategies, and the tentative period of completion of the recent projects, Choure revealed that the Srinagar Civil Enclave is undergoing expansion with a new terminal building, peak hour capacity of 3000 passengers, and 06 parking bays, which is expected to be completed by 2025.
The Leh Civil Enclave new terminal building is developed with a peak hour capacity of 800 passengers due to its weather conditions and is soon going to be operational by December 2023. The Jammu Civil Enclave new terminal building is in the planning stage with a projection of a peak hour capacity of 2000, 06 parking bays, and the project is expected to be completed by 2024. The Adampur Civil Enclave new domestic terminal building is expected to be completed by September 2022.
To strengthen the existing establishments and enhance capacities, similar developments are under execution or planning in the airports of Udaipur, Jodhpur, Dehradun, Ludhiana, Ayodha, Gorakhpur, Kanpur, Kushinagar, Prayagraj, Tezu, Holongi, Imphal, Port Blair, Bagdogra, Patna, Darbhanga, Bhubaneshwar, Jharsuguda, Tirupati, Vijaywada, Rajahmundry, Kadapa, Chennai, Madurai, Coimbatore, Salem, Tuticorin, Pune, Kolhapur, Surat, Gwalior, Jabalpur, and Goa.
Speaking on the Kolkata Airport, Choure said, “We have big plans to increase the Kolkata Airport capacity where the construction of a new terminal building will enhance the total capacity to 59.7 MPPA. The first phase is expected to be completed by March 2026”.
He also said that regular developments have been taking place on facilitating passenger handling capacity at AAI Airports, increasing from 70.96% to 152.24%, during the period 2014-15 till 2021-22. Also, the night landing facility at AAI Airports has accelerated from 36 airports in 2014 to 58 airports.
When asked about facilitating the drop-off mess at the airport and the ways to ease the traveler’s experience, Choure mentioned, “The drop-off problem largely depends on the operations of the local authority as well, and a pattern of bullying happens over there for which the passengers have to suffer. But we are planning to improve the parking facility and the drop-off systems on our levels, and I hope that works. In terms of airport management, we have the ‘May I help you’ desk to provide assistance the travelers, but we don’t have this facility in all airports, but soon we are going to regulate this properly.
According to him, the passenger recovery rate, as compared to last year is 91% recovered on the domestic side, and on the international side it is almost 75%, while the average of both in total is 88% so far.
In July this year, AAI signed an Operation & Management agreement for operationalization of five airports owned by the Government of Uttar Pradesh for a period of 30 years. These five airports are Aligarh, Azamgarh, Chitrakoot, Muirpur and Shravasti.
Kuhelika Roy Choudhury
