Indian airports facing a capacity crunch: CAPA

The consultancy firm said the country would need to build 50 new airports at an investment of $40 bn in the next 10-15 years

Painting a grim picture over the infrastructure at airports, consultancy firm CAPA on Wednesday said India needs to immediately add capacity.

The firm projects passengers at airports to grow at 10.3 per cent to 556 million by 2025 from 190 million in financial year 2016. “This will place immense pressure on metro and non-metro airports, the economic repercussions of an airport capacity crunch could be unthinkable,” CAPA said in the report titled ‘ India’s Airport Capacity Crisis.’

Falling fares and more flights combined to drive air passenger growth in India, already the fastest growing aviation market, to 25.1 per cent in November, leaving the US, the world’s largest aviation market, a distant second with 9.1 per cent growth, the International Air Transport Association said earlier this month.

To handle this, the country would need to build 50 new airports at an investment of $40 billion (Rs 2.72 lakh crore) in the next 10-15 years.

According to CAPA, with exponential rise in Indian air traffic and passengers, capacity at airports in metro cities are going to reach saturation limits. The six metros would require new airports by FY26 and in some cases, much earlier. The situation is similar at the busier non-metro airports. CAPA said of 30 large non-metro airports, 60 per cent will reach projected saturation level in the next two years.

The report pointed out that capex for airport is around $4.9 billion which is far less than developing economies like China’s which stands at $130 billion.

RK Srivastava, Chairman, Airport Authority of India (AAI) on Tuesday said available terminal capacity as of now is 250 million, of which capacity utilised is only 190 million. AAI has completed the development of 33 airports. Of these, the capacity at 10 airports enhanced to 30 million passengers a year has already reached the levels of saturation and requires further augmentation, Srivastava said.