Adani advances Rs 1 lakh crore airport business expansion over five years!

The Adani Group is all set for a major expansion of its airport business that will entail an investment of nearly Rs 1 lakh crore over a period of five years, the conglomerate's airport head Jeet Adani told the Times of India in an interview. Jeet also stated that this capex will be infused into infra and real estate development. There is currently no plan to spread this business to other countries because the potential in India itself is immense.

The group currently runs seven airports in India, including Mumbai CSMIA. Another new airport, in Navi Mumbai, will comes under the group's airport portfolio starting October this year. The new airport plan will be a five-year rolling programme, Adani said. Over the next five years, the group's precise total investment in the airport ecosystem -- infrastructure plus real estate -- will be Rs 95,000-96,000 crore, he added. A majority of this investment will go into Navi Mumbai Airport and Mumbai Airport -- basically into real estate in these two entities, Jeet Adani informed. The other major parts of the plan include new terminals at airports in Ahmedabad, Jaipur and Thiruvananthapuram, etc, over the next four years. Besides, the new terminal in Lucknow will see expansion. A new terminal at Guwahati is also ready and will be commissioned this October-November, Adani said. The other major parts of the plan include new terminals at airports in Ahmedabad, Jaipur and Thiruvananthapuram, etc, over the next four years. Besides, the new terminal in Lucknow will see expansion. A new terminal at Guwahati is also ready and will be commissioned this October-November, Adani said.

Giving a peek into the group's plan for Navi Mumbai, Adani said phase I and II have been clubbed, and that the airport will open with an initial capacity of 2 crore passengers annually (CPA). "This has been built with a capex of Rs 19,000 crore. We have already started work on T2 for Navi Mumbai International Airport (NMIA) which could either be 3-CPA capacity at Rs 30,000 crore or 5-CPA capacity with a capex of Rs 40-45,000 crore," Adani said. Explaining why he is so bullish on aviation, Adani affirmed that the group is "here just as an airport operator but are here to drive the entire ecosystem forward."

"It is not a fight between airline and airport operators. Collectively, our aviation ecosystem has to get the traffic currently transiting between India and rest of the world through nearby hubs in the Gulf, Southeast Asia and even Europe (for North America market)," he said. Those places have a deep integration between airports and airlines, which as of now is not there in India. Fortunately as a group, we have fantastic relationship with IndiGo and the Tatas. We have spoken to both and have asked them to include us into their planning and be a part of our planning," he added.

Sources: Bloomberg & TheEconomicTimes.