Session Three :

Airport Operators Panel: Managing airport inadequacies in India to accelerate the industry's growth

The third session of day two was a panel discussion of airport operators managing airport inadequacies in India to accelerate the aviation industry's growth. The session was moderated was Kapil Kaul, CEO, India and Middle East, Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation with panelists VK Kalra, Executive Director, Airport Authority of India; Frans Bouterse, Head of Planning, Mumbai International Airport Ltd; Viswanath Attaluri, Chief Commercial Officer, GMR- Hyderabad International Airport Limited and Maneesh Jaikrishna, Director of Sales and Relationship Management, SITA. The session brought to light key issues like infrastructural inadequacies, services offered to customers, human resource crunch and technological problems faced by different airport models, including airports managed by Airport Authority of India (AAI), Greenfield and Brownfield airports.

Kapil Kaul, CEO, India and Middle East, Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation addressed the audience by chalking out a picture of the Indian aviation scenario pre-2004, the current state of affairs of the Indian aviation industry, expected conditions in the next two years and the aviation scenario from 2010-2020. He highlighted the fact that the scenario pre-2004 was over-regulated and under-managed by regulators whereas the rules of the games have changed in the present scenario where the market has become more investor-friendly and there have been corrections in the aviation policy. With 40 per cent of passenger traffic concentrated at airports like New Delhi and Mumbai and with five private companies handling about 70 per cent of the total traffic, Kaul acknowledged the need for developing non-metro airports.

VK Kalra, Executive Director, Airport Authority of India (AAI) threw light on issues of infrastructural inadequacies like cargo-handling infrastructure being avoided on a pan-India level, inefficient management practices, Air Traffic Management (ATM) and ineffective disaster management. Kalra assured that AAI will provide various facilities for ATM navigation like DVOR at 20 additional airports by 2010, provision of ILS at 12 new airports by next year, provision of seven MSSR's for seamless ATM surveillance coverage etc. "By adding provisions related to ATM there will be increase in RNP (Required Navigation Performance) over the Indian air space enabling airports to handle more traffic of flights," informed Kalra.

The issues of aligning services for passengers at the new Hyderabad airport were discussed by Viswanath Attaluri, Chief Commercial Officer, GMR- Hyderabad International Airport Limited. According to Attaluri training staff, immigration officers, Air Traffic Control etc. are areas that need to be worked upon to have seamless operations. He also highlighted the issue of human resource crunch that the aviation industry faces. Frans Bouterse, Head of Planning, Mumbai International Airport Ltd (MIAL), emphasised that Brownfield airports face more challenges than Greenfield airports including inadequacy of infrastructure like runways, parking bays, terminals, air traffic controllers etc. Bouterse also drew attention to growing attrition of human resource to Gulf countries where many new airports are being constructed. "The concern is to retain employees and also increase awareness about the scope of airport operators in India," concluded Bouterse.

Technology being the buzz word today, it is an integral part of any airport development. Earlier the penetration of IT was very minimal but with changing times many airports are using technology effectively to cut down cost and bring efficiency in work. "Using technology at Greenfield airports is relatively less challenging than using it on Brownfield airports," said Maneesh Jaikrishna, Director of Sales and Relationship Management, SITA. All existing systems at Brownfield airports including customs, immigration services, Air Traffic Management (ATM), airline systems need to be integrated to the new system. Jaikrishna also emphasised on the need for airport developers to consider the point of view of airlines in terms of the technology used at the airports.