Arun Bansal, the CEO of Adani Group’s airport business, on Friday called for airport passenger processing systems to be made open source and interoperable. He claimed that currently, there is a monopoly on the systems’ suppliers. “There is a monopoly of these vendors, and I really want Indian software developers to come up and create a passenger processing system that is open source, open in nature,” he said, adding that the group is working with regulators in this regard.
In addition to building the Navi Mumbai airport, Adani Airport Holdings Ltd (AAHL) is in charge of managing seven other airports including Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Lucknow, Mangaluru, Jaipur, Guwahati and Thiruvananthapuram.
Bansal on open-source system
The passenger processing systems are currently not compatible, according to AAHL CEO Bansal. Additionally, in order to create an indigenous software stack for passenger processing systems, AAHL is working with Indian software businesses.
However, Bansal declined to answer when asked if the team intended to create an open-source system. “We are not planning to develop. There are a lot of Indian software companies that are best in class. We are collaborating with them to develop an indigenous software stack,” he said.
Speaking on the sidelines of the CAPA India Aviation Summit 2024, Bansal also said there is no policy change required with respect to having an open-source system. “There is no policy change required. The existing software players have made it a close loop where you can’t mix and match whereas the whole world is going to open source,” he noted.
India’s civil aviation market is one of the fastest-growing in the world, with increasing domestic and international travel. Aviation advice firm CAPA India said on Wednesday that it anticipates a 9–11% increase in international air traffic to reach 75–78 million in the current fiscal year, while domestic air traffic in India is predicted to increase by 6–8% to 161–164 million in the current financial year.
(With PTI inputs)