With smaller cities set to lead air traffic growth in the country, the government is planning to build nearly 200 low-cost airports in the next 20 years to meet the demand for air travel. This additional aviation infrastructure is likely to be developed on the private-public partnership (PPP) model, throwing business opportunities for developers like GMR, GVK, L&T and Reliance-ADAG. “The first phase of growth in the aviation sector has been led by low-cost airlines. The next phase would be driven by low-cost airports. The country should have 300 operational airports by the end of 2030,” a senior aviation ministry said.
Each low-cost airport, which would have only basic facilities like a runway, terminal building and air navigation infrastructure, is expected to cost around Rs 80-125 crore. As per an estimate, larger airports worldwide handle 60 per cent of the total air traffic and the remaining is managed by low-cost smaller airports. Amber Dubey, Director (Aviation), KPMG, who is also a member invitee on Innovation Council in the Civil Aviation Sector, has proposed to create a dedicated aviation infrastructure fund for facilitating the development of smaller airports, according to a report by Nirbhay Kumar and Sunny Verma in The Financial Express.