The Adani Group has announced plans to invest Rs 30,000 crore in expanding seven of its current airports over the next five years, alongside the construction of the Rs 18,000-crore Navi Mumbai greenfield airport. Furthermore, the conglomerate intends to allocate Rs 30,000 crore for city-side development at its airports over the next 5-10 years, as stated by Adani Ports MD, Karan Adani.
The funding for these endeavors will be sourced from internal accruals within the parent company, Adani Enterprises. The group currently manages airports in Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Lucknow, Mangaluru, Jaipur, Guwahati, and Thiruvananthapuram.
"The current capacity of our airports is 10-11 crore passengers annually (CPA). This will be increased by up to three times. Lucknow has got a new terminal. Navi Mumbai will open next (by next March). Then Guwahati airport will get a new terminal. We are also planning new terminals for Ahmedabad and Jaipur. Overall, we are looking at a combined capacity of 25-30 CPA by 2040", Karan, who is Adani Group chairman Gautam Adani's son, said.
The expansion will occur in phases. For example, the new terminal at Lucknow Airport currently accommodates 8 million passengers per year, and this capacity will increase to 13 million in the subsequent phase, eventually reaching 38 million annually by 2035. Why is the group so bullish on flyer numbers? "In coming times, we foresee non-metros bypassing hubs and providing flyers with direct connectivity across the world. Their connectivity within the country will also improve", he said.
The majority of direct international flights from India to distant continents currently originate from major metropolitan areas. Tier II cities are typically linked to nearby hubs, where passengers then catch connecting flights to other parts of the world. The initiative to transform smaller airports into international hubs aligns with the government's strategy to elevate Indian airports, equipped with extensive airline network connectivity such as Air India and IndiGo, into key transfer points for passengers.