'India's major airports to face capacity crisis'
Increasing air traffic with growing number of travelers and low-cost airlines is expected to trigger capacity crisis at all major airports across the country by 2020 and several cities will need alternative space to park and fly, experts claim.
“The next five years, 2015-20, are going to be really crucial. We are going to see capacity crisis coming at the airports. We are not prepared for it, and land has not been acquired. We are heading for a major airport capacity challenge,” said Kapil Kaul, CEO of the Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation (CAPA).
According to an estimate, the country’s air traffic has increased to 190 million during the last financial year, registering a growth of 12.47% compared to the previous year. In the past one decade, the traffic has grown at 11.16%, primarily driven by growing income level of middle class and growth in low-cost aviation.
India Brand Equity Foundation (IBEF) has also predicted that India’s domestic and international passenger traffic will grow at 12% and 8 % respectively over the next five years.
“In the next three-five years, we may see most of the airports being saturated. In next 10 years, the opportunity to have a second airport in Delhi will knock us. We are not prepared for it. Delhi, Pune and Chennai would require a second airport,” Kaul said at an international conference on civil aviation held in Delhi this week.
The Airport Authority of India (AAI) says that Chennai airport has the capacity of handling 20 million passengers. But it might not afford 17-18 million. Looking at the current growth in traffic, the airport will likely be saturated by 2016. The AAI plans to expand the airport in 2020.
Earlier, the AAI had asked the airport operator to increase the capacity of terminal to 40 million. But it could neither extend the secondary runway nor build a parallel runway due to restrictions in acquiring land.
Experts say that the traffic at Mumbai's Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport is already at a saturation point. Navi Mumbai International Airport is not expected to be ready until December 2019, and any legal challenge may further delay the project. Soon there will be a need for Mumbai to have its third airport. Condition of Pune airport is no different.
“It would be wise for the aviation ministry to secure the land before it is too late,” Kaul said, expressing concern that with the introduction of the new land acquisition bill, “it’s now more difficult to acquire land”.
India has 464 airports/airstrips across the country, but various airlines are operational through just 90 airports. The country’s top 10 airports handle about 77.5% of air traffic. Facilities at most of the tier II cities are either ignored or have limited capacity.
Analysts say that five major cities— Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad and Kolkata— will need around $30 billion to build infrastructure over the next decade in order to handle the projected air traffic congestion.
August 29, 2015 | 1:05pm IST.
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