As the country’s growing fleet of aircraft is set for expansion, the Mumbai International Airport Limited struggles to keep pace with the aviation boom.
As the country’s growing fleet of aircraft is set for expansion, the Mumbai International Airport Limited struggles to keep pace with the aviation boom. With big plans for airports in various cities including Delhi, Bangalore and Hyderabad, Manisha Singhal takes a look at issues plaguing the island city’s airports. Airport capacity, segregation of aircraft and congestion may lead to Mumbai losing its competitive edge to Delhi
It is estimated that there will be investments of about $80 billion on aircraft in the next 10 years in India. In order to sustain this growth, another $30 billion will be required for airport infrastructure. Of the total fleet of 310 aircraft that India has today, at least 135 have been added for commercial services and 50 for chartered aviation in the past two years. The country’s fleet will reach 500-550 by the end of 2010, according to the Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation (CAPA).
The need for investments for airports arises from the fact that Indian carriers have 480 aircraft (including 92 wide bodies) scheduled for delivery up to 2012.
While airlines are soaring high — taking advantage of stabilised growth in passenger traffic and expanding operations to include international routes — the ground reality is, however, a little different.
The turnaround is not being experienced by passengers who have to deal with delays and cancellations. Airports are struggling to keep up with ever-increasing air traffic and congestion problems.
The question then is, will infrastructure keep pace with the aviation boom and not let airlines fly with clipped wings? Aviation experts said that though the situation might not be looking up at present, 2008 will be a landmark year of sorts for airport infrastructure in the country.
Kapil Kaul of CAPA said infrastructure issues will be a short-term problem. “The Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL) will have a parallel runway ready by next year. Greenfield airports in Bangalore and Hyderabad too will be functioning by then. Kochi already has an airport with world-class facilities. This, along with 35 non-metro airports, will see that by 2010 the country’s airport infrastructure is geared up for the aviation boom,” said Kaul.
But this optimism is absent when it comes to Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport. Though the airport is working aggressively towards adding capacity, aviation experts feel that Mumbai can, at best, make cosmetic changes of not more than 10 to 15 per cent. “The city will lose its competitive edge because of capacity issues at the airport. Delhi’s airport will be handling the maximum amount of air traffic and will become the leading airport in the next two years,” said Kaul.
According to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), the airports in metros currently handle about 70 per cent of the country’s air traffic. Mumbai and Delhi share 50 per cent of the air traffic between them. “In Mumbai and Delhi, there are about 30 to 35 air traffic movements every hour. The fact that the DGCA has not permitted any additional flights by carriers is a clear indication that infrastructure is holding back Indian aviation from realising its full potential. There is lot on the drawing board but nothing is moving fast,” said an airline source.
For the Mumbai International Airport Limited (MIAL), the biggest challenge is the segregation of smaller aircraft and moving chartered aircraft traffic out from the Mumbai airport —something the Delhi airport has already made clear it might adopt as the year ends. MIAL is looking at options to develop secondary airports as well as proposals for multiple airports — till the Navi Mumbai airport takes off — as Mumbai airports are expected to be saturated by 2011.
“Expansion plans for the airport are by and large keeping in tune with expansion plans of airlines. But the plans get hit by the overall space crunch in Mumbai. It has to be made clear what kind of traffic the airport will cater to. It cannot take the kind of traffic it is currently handling,” said an MIAL spokesperson.
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