Airports are getting Bigger & Better

Even as the civil aviation industry in India moved into high gear towards the end of 2003, it became abundantly clear that inadequate airport infrastructure would be the single most debilitating impediment in the growth of the industry. While low cost travel continued to serve as a powerful catalyst to drive the growth of passenger traffic, the stress of air travel and frustration levels among passengers and airline staff increased considerably.

Every type of facility was is short supply—be it city-side parking, baggage screening facility, check-in counters, seating in waiting areas, staff and infrastructure for security check, conveyor belts for handling of baggage, toilet facilities, aerobridges, bays on the apron for parking of aircraft and operating slots. It was not uncommon to see harried international passengers wasting hours in lengthy queues in badly ventilated rooms to get past protracted and tardy customs and immigration formalities. Compared to international airports in countries even smaller than India, facilities here appeared primitive and pathetic.

While passenger traffic grew at around 25 to 30 per cent annually, and sometimes even more, the rate of growth of government-controlled infrastructure hovered at around 5 per cent. It was evident that the ever widening gap between the demand and the availability of airport infrastructure could lead to unmanageable chaos, swiftly transforming the experience of air travel from pleasure to nightmare. Given the lethargic bureaucracy, there appeared to be little hope of speedy redemption.

The inevitable happened. Delhi and Mumbai, that together handle more than half the number of air movements in the country, began to creak under the weight of the unprecedented rise in traffic congestion not only in the air but on the ground as well. Aircraft were compelled to orbit in the vicinity of major airports for an hour or so, waiting for clearance to land. International airports at Delhi and Mumbai—that ought to have been jewels in the crown of the political and financial capitals of India—were reduced to the status of national shame. The Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) airport at Bangalore, essentially an airfield under the Ministry of Defence, had its task cut out. The airfield was never meant to handle civil traffic. With traffic trebling in just four years, the airport was soon bursting at the seams. For the fastest growing city in India, enjoying a global reputation of being the country’s core of a booming information technology sector, the HAL airport was not only a disgrace but a veritable disaster. However, it would not be fair to hold the management of HAL airport accountable or responsible for the mess that prevailed for years.