The construction of new terminal buildings and additional runways at Indian airports notwithstanding, the need of the hour for the country to be able to sustain the double-digit growth in air passenger traffic without facing infrastructure constraints is to have multiple airports in one city. Airports Authority of India (AAI)’s chairman Guruprasad Mohapatra told The Indian Express that the developer is in negotiations with the Gujarat government for moving the Rajkot airport outside the city, and has also written to West Bengal and Tamil Nadu governments for second airports in Kolkata and Chennai, respectively. “We have to realise that the way aviation sector is growing in India, we need to have two airports in many cities. In fact, to address the capacity constraint issue, this is an area we are looking into. You see, most US big cities have two airports. For India also the time has come. This is another area that we are pursuing on behalf of the ministry,” Mohapatra said. As per data furnished by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) India’s domestic air traffic registered a growth of 16.43 per cent in September when airlines flew 9.5 million passengers compared with 8.2 million during the corresponding period last year. “The current Rajkot airport is spread over only 200 acres of land. It is totally constrained and no more development is possible. There is tremendous demand but airlines find it unprofitable to fly there. There, we are in negotiations with the state government. They have given us 2,400 acres of land 18 km away from the current airport where the new airport will be developed. Similarly, we have written to state governments of West Bengal and Tamil Nadu asking them to look at land for second airports at Kolkata and Chennai. Because beyond a point, no matter how much capacity constraint we address, Chennai and Kolkata will require second airports,” he added. Several large global cities have multiple airports within them. The New York metropolitan area has three major airports — John F Kennedy International Airport, Newark Liberty International Airport, and LaGuardia Airport — apart from various other smaller ones. London, as well, for example, has six international airports — City, Heathrow, Gatwick, Luton, Southend and Stansted. Recently, the UK Department for Transport said that without expansion, the airports will reach full capacity by 2034 on account of higher demand. Interestingly, according to data provided by the International Air Transport Association (IATA), the UK, which is currently the third largest air traffic market, is expected to fall to the fifth place, surpassed by India in 2025, and Indonesia in 2030. By 2036, India is expected to be placed third in the world. KPMG’s partner and India head of aerospace and defence Amber Dubey pointed out that India’s top 30 cities with airports will need a second one in the same city within a time frame of five to 10 years. “Given the huge challenges in land acquisition, the aviation ministry and states have to start as of yesterday,” he told this newspaper. “Immediate need is in Mumbai, Goa, Visakhapatnam, Chennai, Pune, Jaipur, Patna, etc. The first three have already been awarded to airport developers. The rest need to move very fast,” he added. Delhi and Mumbai, though, which are operated by private infrastructure developers, will soon see second airports in their regions. The second airport in the National Capital Region will come up in Jewar in Uttar Pradesh, while Mumbai will see the newest airport coming up in Navi Mumbai region. The Jewar airport is expected to be located 72 km from Indira Gandhi International Airport. This raises the question of the 150 km rule, which states that no greenfield airport shall be developed within 150 km of an existing airport, except till the latter has reached its saturation point. On the one hand where Mohapatra said that the government was ready to relax the rule, Dubey said that rule should be done away with. “The new airport may come up even 30 km from the existing one and be beneficial to both airports and the local economy. The key determinant should be the economic rationale behind the second airport. For fast growing cities, the second airport should be planned when traffic at the existing airport reaches around 50-60 per cent of its design capacity, given the time and complexities involved in land acquisition, airport bidding process and regulatory approvals,” Dubey said. According to another AAI official, the current available capacity at Indian airports is 282 million passengers per annum, whereas the demand forecast for 2020-21 is 396 million passengers per annum. “There are plans for creating additional capacity of 154 million passengers per annum in the next 4-5 years, in which 56 million passengers per annum additional capacity will be created in AAI airports like Chennai, Srinagar, Pune, Dehradun, Lucknow, Mangalore, Jaipur, Goa, Agartala, Guwahati, Leh, Patna, Trichy, Vijaywada, Port Blair, Agartala, Calicut, Trivandrum and Jabalpur. Additionally, 98 million passengers per annum capacity will be created in joint-venture, private, and state government airports,” the official said. The IATA, too, expects that airport infrastructure such as runways, terminals, and ground access are expected to come under strain going ahead. “Increasing demand will bring a significant infrastructure challenge. The solution does not lie in more complex processes or building bigger and bigger airports but in harnessing the power of new technology to move activity off-airport, streamline processes and improve efficiency. Through partnerships within the industry and beyond, we are confident that sustainable solutions for continued growth can be found,” said IATA’s Director General and CEO Alexandre de Juniac.
