The aviation industry has welcomed the proposal in the Union Budget to enhance airport capacity by five times but has demanded swift execution to meet the infrastructure shortfall.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in his budget presentation said that the government proposes to expand airport capacity by more than five times to handle a billion passengers a year, adding that the balance sheet of Airport Authority of India will be leveraged to raise more resources for funding expansion works.
«We welcome the focus on airport infrastructure capacity announced in the Budget. In our 20-year passenger forecasts, IATA anticipates India will become the third largest aviation market by 2024.
«But this is by no means guaranteed. To make this a reality, airport capacity in India needs to be augmented and expanded quickly,» said Amitabh Khosla, Country Director – India, International Air Transport Association (IATA).
IATA also underlined that Mumbai was lagging in economic development because of capacity constraints at the city’s Chhatrapati Shivaji International airport
«Navi Mumbai airport is still a distant dream. In the meantime, Mumbai continues to fall behind in aviation activity, and Maharashtra state is unable to maximize the economic potential that can be delivered by aviation. We urge the government to urgently look at innovative approaches to bridge the infrastructure shortfall,» Khosla added.
IATA has also supported leveraging AAI’s balance sheet for infrastructure creation and expansion.
KPMG has stressed that the government needs to turn its words into action.
«It is encouraging to see the FM talk about increasing airport capacity to handle one billion trips per annum from around 180 million currently.
«It’s fantastic to see that the government is shifting from short term planning to a long term vision. The focus should now shift to the execution of this challenging yet achievable vision,» said Amber Dubey, Partner and Head, Aerospace and Defence, KPMG…
