Session Four :

Hyderabad International Airport: India’s first world class Greenfield airport

With the growth in aviation sector across the globe, Middle East & emerging economies in Asia (India & China) will lead in traffic over the next five years. This spells significant opportunities in Indian aviation business. It is predicted that Indian airports will handle 202 million passengers by 2010. The fleet expansion plans of leading Indian carriers indicate their desire to grow internationally. Viswanath Attaluri, Chief Commercial Officer, GMR – Hyderabad International Airport Ltd. (GHIAL) offered his views on plans for GHIAL in the coming years.

Attaluri started off by focusing on the problems currently faced by the aviation sector in India. He said, “Inadequate infrastructure is the biggest hurdle hitting on the face of aviation sector in India. Also, problems of expanding the existing airports to increase capacity, is another problem that needs to be solved.” GHIAL started operations in March this year and till now (80 days) has catered to about 1.6 million passengers, both domestic and international. “We are aiming to handle eight million passengers this year. The master plan is to make the airport efficient enough to handle about 40 million passengers in the coming years through expanding the capacity of the airport with time,” said Attaluri. There are plans to introduce hotels, convention halls and airline lounge areas in the coming years. Adding to this Attaluri said, “We are keeping an eye on domestic air traffic, which is growing around 10-12 per cent annually, primarily due to middle class population who are now opting for air travel. Thus, we are considering introducing a LCC terminal to cater to the growing needs and increasing air traffic at the airport in the coming years”.

GHIAL is the first PPP model Greenfield airport in India, which is now setting benchmarks for other airports in India. Highlighting the challenges and lessons learned by GHIAL during the completion of the airport, Attaluri said, “We have learnt various things and faced many problems during the completion of the project, starting from the bidding phase to development phase. The airport is still facing operational challenges and rising ATF (Air Turbulence Fuel) is making the situation worse. But we are trying to overcome the problems through modern technology and innovative strategies.”