India’s Adani seeks to operate more airports as part of US$11 billion expansion
The group currently manages seven airports across the country, with plans to aggressively bid for 11 more
[MUMBAI/NEW DELHI] India’s Adani Enterprises plans to aggressively bid for 11 airports that the federal government plans to lease to the private sector, as part of the company’s US$11 billion expansion strategy for airport infrastructure.
The conglomerate, led by billionaire Gautam Adani, has embarked on an expansion spree in recent years, with its airport subsidiary becoming the largest operator in India in terms of the number of airports.
India’s other major aviation player, GMR Group, is the largest operator in terms of the number of passengers handled.
The Indian government is leasing out government-owned airports for long periods to private players, while incentivising building new ones. From 163 currently, it plans to have 350 to 400 airports by 2047.
Earlier this year, New Delhi had outlined plans to lease out 11 airports, including at Amritsar and Varanasi.
“We will be bidding for all (11) of them,” said Jeet Adani, director at Adani Airports, in an interview in Mumbai this week.
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Adani Airports manages seven airports across India, and is set to operationalise the first airport it has built from scratch – a new airport near Mumbai – this month.
Adani and GMR are rushing to tap into booming air travel in India. About 174 million passengers travelled from and within the South Asian country by air in 2024, 10 per cent more than a year earlier, data from the International Air Transport Association showed.
Indian airlines have placed orders for over 1,300 aircraft since 2023.
Jeet Adani said that the company has no plans to enter the airline business, citing thin margins.
“You need to have a certain mindset to run an airline. I don’t think we have that mindset. Our comfort and our core competency is in creating hard assets on the ground, long gestation assets, (and) running them quite efficiently,” he said. REUTERS
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