Adani Airports is accelerating expansion to create capacity ahead of the expected surge in aircraft and passenger traffic, with the airport operator planning around $10 billion in capex over the next five years across airport and city-side infrastructure.
Arun Bansal, CEO, Adani Airport Holdings told FE that capacity needs to be created well ahead of demand as new runways and terminals take several years to develop. “New airport or new terminal takes minimum four to five years. We need to start the capex now,” Bansal said. The next phase of Navi Mumbai International Airport is expected to be ready around 2030-31.
Proactive Capacity Creation
The expansion comes in focus as Indian carriers have placed large aircraft orders. IndiGo and Air India have collectively ordered around 1,680 aircraft, according to their publicly announced order books. Bansal said infrastructure needs to be created to accommodate these aircraft as they are delivered.
“If they get delivered by 2032, where is the capacity to park those aircrafts in India? They need to park somewhere. They need to start somewhere,” he said.
Navi Mumbai International Airport currently has around 20 million passengers of capacity, while its next phase is expected to add around 30 million passengers of capacity, taking the total capacity to 50 million.
Bansal said Adani Airports’ approach is to develop infrastructure before demand arrives, rather than wait for existing facilities to become saturated. “Traditionally, in India, it’s always made infrastructure after the expiry. You see the experience in Guwahati. Guwahati terminal was utilized 250%, passenger had bad experience,” he said.
“Why not we give that experience to India where we are ready before hand? That can only happen when capacity is available before the demand comes, not the other way around,” Bansal said.
Breakdown of Investment
The company’s five-year investment programme includes around ₹20,000 crore for city-side development and roughly ₹70,000 crore for airport expansion, taking the overall investment requirement to around ₹1 lakh crore.
The programme includes Navi Mumbai’s next phase, a new terminal at Ahmedabad that needs to be ready by 2029 ahead of the Commonwealth games, and investments at Jaipur and Trivandrum.
Adani Airports currently handles around 100 million passengers. Bansal said the company needs to build capacity to handle around 500 million passengers over the next decade.
“India needs to have that level of planning now,” he said, underlining the need for long-term infrastructure creation as the country’s aviation market expands. Such planning is necessary as India looks towards aviation infrastructure requirements extending to 2040 and beyond, Bansal said.