In a boost to air connectivity to small cities in India, the government plans to build 29 greenfield airports in the next two decades. The Airports Authority of India (AAI) has also completed its study of about 10 new airports.
The purpose of these new airports is to connect small cities to international routes, so as to improve its global connectivity. This initiative will not only improve travel facilities to these small cities but will also give a boost to the economic activities in these areas.
According to a report by The Mint, Gujarat tops the list of maximum new airports to be built. Nine new airports will be built in the state. This is followed by Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and Jharkhand. One airport will be constructed each in 13 other states.
The government is planning to improve or establish new airports in small cities under a five-year plan. New airports are also being planned in big metro cities, where the capacity of existing airports is almost full.
“There is a plan to expand and modernize most of the airports so that they can handle large aircrafts like Boeing 737 and Airbus 320. In future, these airports will be prepped up for large, two-corridor aircrafts. These will ensure direct connectivity to international destinations,” an official said.
Building big airports in small cities is important keeping in mind the long term development of these areas. The official said that the plan to upgrade existing airports in small cities is proving to be inadequate in view of increasing footfall in these areas. Therefore, new greenfield airports will be built in these cities to meet the growing demand of passengers in the coming years.
So far no information has been shared about the cost or time frame of building these airports since the plan is in its initial stage. According to Mint, an email sent to AAI and the Aviation Ministry about this was not answered till the time of writing the report.
While economic analysts are welcoming this move, they believe that the planning of these greenfield airports should be based on the forecasts of the increase in the number of passengers, and not on political objectives.
Mark Martin, Founder and CEO of aviation consulting firm ‘Martin Consulting’, said, “This really shows the foresight of the government. But we have to keep in mind that the planning of airports should be based only on passenger demand and not under political pressure. In the past, we have seen some airports being planned for electoral reasons, even though they were not necessary in terms of passenger numbers.”
Martin emphasised the need for better connectivity, especially in areas like Manipal, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Tripura and Bihar.
“Cities like Patna need a safe and better airport. Many airports have been built at places where there are not enough passengers. It is good that a greenfield airport is planned for Patna. But there are some airports on the list that are not needed right now,” he said.
After the pandemic, small cities in India have seen a huge increase in the number of passengers, thanks to the government’s ‘UDAN’ scheme. The scheme subsidizes flights to under-served destinations. Some airports have seen a six-fold increase in passenger traffic in this fiscal, though it has started from a small base.
The scheme, launched in 2017, has significantly boosted demand for air travel in smaller cities. While the number of domestic routes was 215 in 2014, it has reached 540 by April 2024. The scheme targets to have 1,000 flight routes operational in the country. Apart from new greenfield airports, new airports are also being built in metro cities such as the Jewar Airport in Noida and Navi Mumbai. This step has been taken to meet the growing demand in these cities.
Indian airlines carried 8 million (about Rs 66 crore) passengers during the June 2024 quarter, a 17.6% year-on-year increase, while international passenger traffic grew 10% to 9.6 million (about Rs 79 crore).
Based on passenger growth, it has been estimated that 14 cities may soon need a second or a third airport. While the planning for second airports in cities like Chennai and Pune is already in its advanced stage, Mumbai and Bengaluru may need a third airport by 2047.
Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities such as Srinagar, Chandigarh, Dehradun, Gorakhpur, and Leh may also need new airports in the next 10 to 20 years to accommodate the growing number of passengers in future.
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