‘Developing new airports is difficult’

Angela Gittens is the Director General of the Montreal-based Airports Council International. In a freewheeling conversation with Ashwini Phadnis , the former airport CEO of Miami and Atlanta advocates a clear policy and efficient implementation to attract capital to develop airport infrastructure.

The progress in developing Indian airports has been tardy. What is your advice to accelerate the process?

This is fairly normal. You see it in many countries. Developing new airports is very difficult. No one wants an airport in his neighbourhood because of the noise that aircraft make. It is also difficult to identify a proper place for an airport, deal with the environmental impact, particularly noise, and to get the money to build it.

With respect to India, having a national civil aviation policy is very useful because it provides the path forward. It is a tough challenge to set up a new airport in the absence of a government policy; you do not get the political support that you need. An airport is like an industrial park, you have to make some tough decisions.

You are not unduly worried at the pace of airport development here?

I wish it was faster but we know from experience that it does take time. China is an anomaly; they have been able to produce airports at a very fast pace. But you do not see that in many countries.

Would you say that lack of airport infrastructure is hampering the growth of aviation?

Absolutely.

What would be your prescription to the Indian government to accelerate this?

Step one they are already doing now which is coming up with a policy. I think that has been lacking. Publishing that policy and then implementing it through a variety of means, including attracting private capital and putting in some public capital where you cannot get private capital. But they need to remove the obstacles, listen to investors and pay attention to stakeholders and make sure that the stakeholders understand what is happening and our involved in the process.

What has been the experience of listening to the investor in India in the airport space?

I think they did; they attracted good investors. The problem came when the airlines and the communities did not understand what was happening because the process was not as transparent, as I think it will be going forward.

What kind of transparency will make it easier?

Now they have a regulatory regime. They are going to the next round and they should bring in not just the investment community but also all the stakeholders - airlines, chambers of commerce, mayors of the cities so that they understand what is happening so that they do not feel at the end of the process “gosh what has happened”. Make it more participatory.

While some decisions will be tough, others will not be liked by some of the participants but they should know what is happening. They should have a voice so that they can at least explain their views.

Given that you represent the airport community how will you explain to airlines who complain that the landing and other charges here are way too high?

You have to explain the reasons for the high charges. For the airlines to say that the charges are too high usually means that they have gone up. Well they were artificially low for so many years; now did they say thank you for all the money which we saved? No.

The real issue is: are the charges unreasonable for what they are getting? What are the charges compared to airports in other places?

These are now first class airports in India. It has accommodated a lot of growth and economic value. There is no charge above a penny which the airlines will say is okay with us. What we have been saying is back off, let the airlines and airports negotiate among themselves as adults. If one is abusive of its market power (it could be an airline or airport) then the Government can step in.

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