Burgeoning air traffic would prompt construction of second airports in five major metros and a third in Mumbai as an estimated $30 billion would be invested on such infrastructure over the next decade, an aviation consultancy firm has said.

Over the next 10 years, Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad and Kolkata are expected to provision for a second airport and Mumbai would need to start preparing for a third one, based on current growth estimates, the Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation (CAPA) said in a study.

High traffic growth was also being witnessed at several non-metros with several airports having “already outgrown their existing infrastructure”, the Sydney-based aviation consultancy firm said.

“Projected growth will necessitate provisioning for a second airport at each of the metro cities and a third in the case of Mumbai, paving the way for a total of 13 metro airports. There is the possibility of a second airport in Ahmedabad as well,” it said.

The Indian airport sector is expected to see a further investment of $30 billion including the cost of upgrading existing airports, provisioning for second airports at each of the metros and construction of greenfield airports.

Noting that most metro airports barring Mumbai have adequate capacity for the next few years, CAPA said even in cases like Delhi and Bangalore which have new airports and sufficient capacity, the rate of growth was such that planning is needed in this decade for building of second airports.

The same was true of Chennai airport which would run out of capacity before 2017, it said.

Observing that most of the 35 key non-metro airports need new capacity now or very shortly, it said cities like Pune, Patna, Jaipur, Nagpur and Lucknow had “urgent requirements“.

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