In a significant shake-up to India’s airport services ecosystem, Adani Airports CEO Arun Bansal has said that lounge access at airports will no longer need middlemen, thereby eliminating the need of third-party aggregators. According to a report by CNBC TV18, the company CEO said that flyers can now enter lounges directly via Adani Airports’ digital platform.
The service, developed by Adani’s in-house digital lab, integrates with airport systems and passenger data, enabling real-time authentication and entry—no vouchers, cards, or third-party verification required.
Earlier in 2024, Adani Airports Holdings Limited (AAHL) introduced an app called aviio to cater to passengers and other stakeholders across the seven airports it operates in India, including Mangaluru International Airport.
While maintaining and hailing the initiative, Arun Bansal said that “only companies that disrupt themselves will survive in a tech-led world”.
The move comes amid rising tensions between airport operators and Dreamfolks Services Ltd, an aggregator of lounge access and related services. Earlier, in an interaction with CNBC TV18, Dreamfolks Services CEO and Chairperson Liberatha Peter Kallat had criticised two major Indian airport operators for using pressuring tactics to disrupt her company’s business. Kallat had stated that the airport operators who recently launched competing lounge access services have put pressure on banks to cut ties with Dreamfolks.
“There is negative PR build-up against Dreamfolks by airport operators, tried to be diplomatic, but it is high time we tell everybody what was happening,” Kallat had said.