India is taking a giant leap forward in its aviation infrastructure development with an ambitious plan to transform smaller towns into thriving aviation hubs. The Airports Authority of India (AAI) is spearheading this initiative by planning to establish 29 greenfield airports across underserved regions over the next two decades. This unprecedented project aims to connect smaller towns with global air routes, effectively bridging the gap between rural India and the world stage.
The AAI has already completed feasibility studies for 10 of these airports, signifying the seriousness of the endeavor. Gujarat leads the way with a proposed nine airports, followed by Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, and Jharkhand. Thirteen other states are slated to receive one airport each under this expansive plan. This strategy anticipates long-term passenger growth, ensuring that robust infrastructure is in place over the next 20 years to accommodate the projected future demand.
In parallel, the Indian government is meticulously crafting a five-year plan to upgrade existing airports or establish new ones in smaller cities. Additionally, the government is envisioning the construction of second or third airports in major metropolitan areas where the current infrastructure is nearing capacity. These strategic moves underscore the government’s commitment to catering to the burgeoning air travel demand across India.
“Most of these (29 proposed) airports have been found to be feasible…The pre-feasibility is being conducted for some of them. The idea is to make these airports capable of handling at least single aisle planes like Airbus 320 and Boeing 737s,” revealed one of the officials involved in the project. “Most of these airports will be made to handle bigger dual aisle planes to ensure that they are able to connect to international destinations directly.” The second official emphasized the crucial role of larger airports in smaller cities in building a robust infrastructure for long-term growth. “The idea is to build infrastructure for the long-term, as upgrading airports in smaller cities have been found to be inadequate with traffic growing beyond expectations in the short term. So, the plan is to build greenfield airports in these smaller cities to ensure that they can support growth for a long term,” he added.
While the officials refrained from disclosing the cost of building these airports or providing a specific timeline, they clarified that the planning is still in its initial stages. Email inquiries sent to the AAI and the aviation ministry on Monday remained unanswered at the time of publication.
Demand-Driven Planning: A Key Factor
Aviation experts, while applauding the government’s forward-thinking approach, emphasize the paramount importance of basing airport planning primarily on passenger growth forecasts. This ensures that infrastructure aligns with actual demand and avoids being driven by political motivations. “Superb thinking by the government for planning ahead for airports in underserved regions, kudos to the government. A word of caution, we have seen in the past that these airport planning has been influenced by politics, elections more than the passenger growth projections. We must understand air transport is based on demand and those can’t be gimmicky or manifesto based,” said Mark Martin, founder and CEO at Martin Consulting, an aviation consultancy firm.
Martin also stressed the urgency of prioritizing regions like Manipal, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Tripura, and Bihar for enhanced connectivity to address the rising demand. “Airport planning in the past have been based more on politics that has led to airports with no passengers and city like Patna still struggling with an unsafe airport…It is good that a greenfield airport is planned for Patna but some airports in the list still seems unnecessary,” he added.
Regional Air Travel Takes Off
The post-pandemic era has witnessed a surge in passenger traffic in smaller towns across India, driven by the government’s UDAN (Ude Desh ka Aam Nagrik) scheme. This scheme subsidizes flights to underserved destinations, making air travel more accessible to a larger population. Some airports have reported a remarkable six-fold increase in passengers this fiscal year, albeit from a low base. Launched in 2017, the UDAN scheme has significantly boosted air travel demand in smaller towns, resulting in a remarkable expansion of domestic routes. The number of domestic routes has climbed from 215 in 2014 to 540 by April 2024, with a target of 1,000 operational UDAN routes in the pipeline.
The planned greenfield airports, coupled with new metro airports like Jewar and Navi Mumbai, are strategically designed to meet this burgeoning demand. Indian carriers transported a staggering 8 million passengers during the quarter ended June, marking a 17.6% growth year-on-year, while international passenger traffic surged by 10% to 9.6 million. Projections based on passenger growth suggest that 14 cities may soon require second or third airports to keep pace with the escalating demand. Chennai and Pune are already in the advanced planning stages for second airports, while Mumbai and Bengaluru could necessitate third airports by 2047.
Tier-2 cities such as Srinagar, Kolkata, Chandigarh, Dehradun, Gorakhpur, and Leh are also expected to need new airports over the next 10 to 20 years to accommodate the anticipated growth. This aggressive expansion of air infrastructure underscores India’s unwavering commitment to fostering a robust and interconnected aviation ecosystem, further propelling the nation’s economic growth and connecting its diverse population.
