The airstrips of World War II vintage are likely be instrumental in bringing down the cost of air travel to ₹2,500 per 500 km, if the Centre’s plans fructify. Nearly two-thirds of the 350 unused airstrips in the country built by the British in 1939-45 for military use are now likely to be transformed into no-frills airports.

“Each airfield requires a minimum of 500 acres of land and optimising existing World War airstrips will save the cost of infrastructure,” RN Choubey, Secretary, Ministry of Civil Aviation, said on the sidelines of the Indian Aviation Show 2016 here.

A study on air travel patterns has revealed that an average middle class person in the country travels by air once in five years. The poor frequency is not due to low purchasing power as much as it is because there’s no airport close to one’s place and the fares do not favourably compare with other available options.

“There are 350 million middle class people in the country who can travel by air if the fare is around ₹2,500 for 500 km or one hour air travel,” said Choubey. The New National Aviation Policy to be announced next month is likely to offer sops to operationalise these airstrips. “If there are huge concessions, various costs — including for land, parking and other associated payments — can be brought down. We will be providing viability gap funding for airliners who wish to fly to these airstrips,” the official said.

Challenges ahead

While the plans may sound encouraging, experience shows that the concept of no-frills airport has remained only on paper for almost a decade. The Centre, however, is now claiming that promoting regional connectivity by roping in airfields has been a priority in the new policy and incentivising operations is going to be a game changer.

The industry is cautiously optimistic. According to Guillaume Huertas, Sales Director - South Asia, ATR, big economies took the decentralisation route to aviation growth by focussing on tier II and tier III locations.

Then, there is service. “No-frills airports are fine but the passenger demands are not lighter,” said I Prabhakara Rao, CEO, Delhi International Airport (P) Ltd.

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