To improve connectivity, Govt to set up 50 regional airports in 3 years

The Centre will set up 50 regional airports over the next three years, according to Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju.

“We estimate about 50 new regional airports to come up in the next three years. Ten of them would be ready by the end of this year,” Gajapathi Raju told BusinessLine .

Development of regional airports was a key component of the draft civil aviation policy, which suggested levies on airlines to fund creation of new airports in areas not well-connected by rail and road such as the North-East as well as popular tourist destinations across the country.

“We are talking to all state governments to provide concessions for these new airports which include low tax on ATF at 1 per cent and elimination of service tax at these airports. Maharashtra could lead the effort with six such airports to be ready in the next one year,” the Minister said.

MoU with Maharashtra Gajapathi Raju, who was in Mumbai to meet Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, also signed an MoU with the Maharashtra government to facilitate regional air connectivity by making it affordable by enacting different concessions offered by the Union government, empowered group of ministers and operators.

He said the government expects to raise ₹500 crore per year by levying a tax on airlines flying to these routes while offering them concessions to offset the cost. The cost of each of these airports would be about ₹50-100 crore.

Shirdi airport by Nov Many of these airports will utilise the existing 400 airstrips across the country, many of which date back to the Second World War era and have been lying idle since, the minister said.

In Maharashtra, Shirdi airport is expected to begin operations from November while others at Nanded, Sholapur, Kolhapur, Jalgaon , Gondia and Akola will follow suit.

The minister also said that the government is conducting a ICAO survey in Mumbai to finalise the permitted building heights in BKC and Wadala areas.

Talking about the growing passenger volumes, the minister said that the Indian carriers are now flying at over 80 percent of utilization of their bilateral seats in gulf and over 90 percent in the Dubai sector. “Indian carriers are performing well now and we would soon begin bilateral discussions to increase seat allotments to gulf,” he said.

Gulf carriers such as Emirates and Etihad have long extinguished their permitted quota of seats to fly into the country and have been requesting for more than 50,000 additional seats. The government so far has been mum on the requests since Indian carriers were not able to utilise their quota.

“We will not negotiate bilaterals till the Indian carriers start performing,” Gajapathi Raju said while talking about increasing flying quota for the Gulf carriers.

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