Break the complacency barrier

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: Moscow has seven airports, London four and even Lahore two, there is no reason that we cannot have multiple airports in full operation. Japan is an interesting case. Civil aviation airports there are governed by the country’s aeronautical law for safety purposes, by the noise prevention law for urban harmony and by the airport development law for economic development purposes. Thus, Japanese airports are grouped into three legal classifications. First-class airports nominally handle international flights. So when the new Narita (Tokyo) and Kansai (Osaka) airports were completed, the old airports of Tokyo (Haneda) and Osaka (Itami) stopped intercontinental flights but did not close down. Instead, they handled other flights. Japan now has 24 second class airports and 56 third class airports, with two more being built.

If India is to sustain its aviation growth, it has to plan its infrastructure accordingly. If a recent press report about the Indian aim of having 500 airports by 2020 is to be taken seriously, then it would surely need enormous investment and Herculean effort. Quickly. For, the delays will only get longer, and time is of the essence here.

As Prime Minister Manmohan Singh recently said about Sino-Indian relations, “There is enough space for both China and India in this world to coexist.” The same is true of old and new airports. They can and should coexist.