The central government is reluctant to allocate sizeable funds to Tier-II city airports because air passenger growth at these airports is still slow compared to metros, said an expert who did not want to be named.
Are airfields in Tier-II cities like Mangalore, Mysore, Hassan and Belgaum getting neglected with the government’s focus squarely fixed on more lucrative airports in metros? Yes, according to civil aviation experts.
The central government is reluctant to allocate sizeable funds to Tier-II city airports because air passenger growth at these airports is still slow compared to metros, said an expert who did not want to be named.
“Not many airlines want to fly to smaller towns like Mangalore, Mysore, Hassan, Belgaum and others because of the lower rate of growth there. One of the reasons is that the road network is now well-developed and people prefer to travel by road than fly on short-haul routes. This could be why the Centre is shying away from spending on these airports,” he said.
The reluctance shown by private companies to participate in modernising smaller airports have stunted the latter’s development in comparison to major airports like Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Chennai and Bangalore.
The Airports Authority of India (AAI) spent Rs3534.62 crore in the 10th Plan and is expecting to spend Rs12417.17 crore in the 11th Plan period. Currently, Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad and Bangalore are operated by private companies, along with AAI, under the private public partnership (PPP) model. On the other hand, the government has not been able to rope in private partners for most of the Tier-II airports.
Kapil Kaul, chief executive officer (India and Middle East), Centre for Asia Pacific (CAPA), said the Centre needs to develop a robust regional airline policy for airports in the smaller cities to take off. “Unless we have a robust regional airline policy, you can’t achieve the objective of growth at these (regional) airports,” he said.
Kaul, however, said the Centre has given enough attention to airports in Trichi, Thiruvananthapuram, Jaipur, Chandigarh and others, where it has undertaken several infrastructure development projects.
A senior executive with a regional airline said despite the lower rate of growth at airports like Puducherry and Mysore, the Centre has spent on improving facilities. Airports in Trichi and Trivandrum are growing at 30% to 40%, he said.
AAI chairman VP Agrawal was unavailable for comments.
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