The Airports Authority of India is burdened with as many as 32 non-operational airports. These airports, though not revenue generating, require deployment of full-time staff as well as regular maintenance.
In 2008-09, AAI incurred an expenditure of Rs 4.10 crore on the upkeep of non-operational airports at Cuddapah in Andhra Pradesh, Mysore in Karnataka, Jharsuguda in Orissa, Vellore in Tamil Nadu, and Balurghat, Behala, and Malda in West Bengal.
AAI's other non-operational airports are located at Donakonda and Warangal in Andhra Pradesh, Passighat in Arunachal Pradesh, Rupsi in Assam, Jogbani, Muzaffarpur and Raxaul in Bihar, Bilaspur in Chhattisgarh, Deesa in Gujarat, Chakulia in Jharkhand, Khandwa, Panna and Satna in Madhya Pradesh, Akola, Solapur and Jalgaon in Maharashtra, Shella in Meghalaya, Aizwal in Mizoram, Kishangarh in Rajasthan, Kailashahar, Kamalpur and Khowai in Tripura, Asansol in West Bengal, and Jhansi and Lalitpur in Uttar Pradesh.
Given that most of the non-operational airports have been identified as 'commercially unviable' and also lack the infrastructure that is required of a modern airport, the AAI now needs to seriously consider closing down these facilities to prevent further loss of its resources. The huge tracts of land occupied by these airports can easily be sold at a premium to real estate developers. Political parties, however, are not in favour of AAI exercising this option.
"For the last so many years, revenues from the major airports have been utilised for maintaining the non-operational airports," Rajiv Pratap Rudy, Member of Parliament (Rajya Sabha) from the BJP and a former civil aviation minister, told Projectmonitor.
"The airports that are non-operational can't be substituted. AAI can't just shut them down and sell the land. Once the land is sold, there will be no scope for building airports in the future. Land is not easily available. These airports, their infrastructure and land will therefore have to be retained. Once there is growth in traffic, these airports will become viable. Till then AAI will have to maintain these airports. It will not become poorer by doing so," he said.
Rudy blamed the United Progressive Alliance government's policies for the large number of non-operational airports in the country.
"During the NDA government, traffic grew by 30 per cent. The present government has not been able to maintain that growth because of its policies. Otherwise many of the non-operational airports would have been functional today," he said.
Industry observers believe that several of the non-operational airports were built because of political considerations and without conducting detailed feasibility studies.
"For building an airport, there has to be adequate traffic. However, in India, airports are often built due to political reasons without taking into account the commercial viability factor," said a former official of AAI.
"Politicians just want airports in their constituencies. They are least interested in the feasibility studies. Not only that, they demand that the airports should have runways and other facilities that can handle large aircraft. If the need is for a runway that can handle 50-seater aircraft, then it doesn't make sense to construct a runway for Airbus 320," he said.
The former AAI official added that some of the non-operational airports were built during the Second World War and required substantial investments for development of their infrastructure.
"Many of these airports are nothing more than just landing strips. Huge investments have to be made if they are to be developed in to full fledged airports," he said.
"In an economy like ours, the main modes of transport are rail and road. It is not possible to compete with these modes of transport in terms of cost. Since majority of the people in our country use rail and road, there is really no need to invest on these airports," he added.
A KPMG report on Indian airports, which was released in October last year, had suggested utilising non-operational airports for enhancing connectivity across the country, rationalising costs incurred by airlines, and decongesting traffic at regular airports.
According to Kapil Kaul, Chief Executive Officer of Center for Asia Pacific Aviation - South Asia, non-operational airports that have potential should be handed over to state governments for further development.
"To begin with, AAI should conduct detailed feasibility studies on these airports. Investments on these airports will depend on the feasibility. Those airports that are found viable should then be leased to states. Given that airports are considered to be key drivers of economic development, state governments will eagerly participate in such ventures. The AAI, given its financial position, may not be able to develop these non-operational airports," Kaul said.
"State governments can initially open these airports for air taxi operations. Over a period of time, regional airlines can also be encouraged to use the airports. States may have to provide certain incentives to the airlines for this," he added.
CAPA is a provider of independent aviation market intelligence, analysis and data services covering worldwide developments.
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