AAI to display 29 airports at World Route Development Forum

In a bid to expand its connectivity, the Airport Authority of India (AAI) will be marketing 29 airports in the country to international airlines participating in World Route Development Forum that is being held in Chicago between 20^th and 23^rd September.

The airports that AAI plans to develop, in order to market among the international airlines, include both domestic and international airports. These airports include Amritsar, Chandigarh, Jaipur, Lucknow, Leh, Srinagar, Varanasi (Banaras), Bhubaneswar, Gaya, Kolkata, Port Blair, Ranchi, Raipur, Guwahati, Ahmedabad, Aurangabad, Bhopal, Indore, Goa, Pune, Surat, Chennai, Coimbatore, Calicut, Madurai, Mangalore, Trivandrum, Trichy and Visakhapatnam.

The apex body of airports has held one-on-one meetings with the carriers and has an exclusive stand at the forum. “The airport-specific brochures brought out by AAI on the occasion included salient features of the airports, catchment areas they belong to, aerodrome reference code, tourist attractions and aviation and tourism potential,” said the ministry in a statement.

The ministry added that AAI plans to come up with no-frills airports to enhance air connectivity as well as facilitate availability of infrastructure in the sector, which will ensure smooth air operations across airports in the country.

“Government of India is focusing and pushing for development of airport infrastructure in tier-III cities. AAI will have to play a key role in implementation and execution of no-frill airports in the country. As per the estimates, about 50 such airports are on the anvil. The five airports included in Phase-I are Tezu in Arunachal Pradesh, Jharsuguda in Odisha, Hubli and Belgaum in Karnataka and Kishangarh in Rajasthan,” added the ministry.

The apex body has been participating World Route Development Forum for the past six years. AAI has 125 airports which consist of 21 international airports domestic airports, 7 customs airports (4 civil enclaves) and 19 other civil enclaves. Among the international airports, AAI has 3 civil enclaves and 3 joint ventures.

Currently, Indian airports, on the domestic front, handle nearly 122 million passengers while 47 million international passengers. The airports expected to handle 217 million domestic and 76 million international passengers by 2020.