Twin Takeoff: Indian cities finally getting secondary airports but where are the low-cost terminals?

This year, in one fell swoop, two of India’s biggest cities will have spanking new airports.

Over the next few months, a couple of the most awaited projects in Indian aviation history will finally take flight: the first being the Navi Mumbai International Airport (NMIA), which has the airport code NMI. And then, Delhi will have its second airport (discounting passenger operations at Hindon, which are minuscule at best). Noida International Airport, with the airport code DXN, is likely to open between October and November.

But the road to realising secondary airports in Indian cities has been paved with obstacles. Both Navi Mumbai and Noida airports have been in conversation for decades, but it has taken a while to get to this point.



ABOUT TIME
Most global cities bigger than a certain size end up needing more than one airport. It is a natural consequence of growth.

In the US, New York has John F Kennedy International, Newark, La Guardia, and for small jets, Teterboro. Washington DC has Reagan Airport as well as Dulles.

London has Heathrow, Stansted, Luton, City and Gatwick.

Paris has Charles de Gaulle, Orly and Beauvais-Tillé airports.

Bangkok has Suvarnabhumi and Don Mueang.

Tokyo has Narita and Haneda.

Meanwhile, in Mumbai, during the last financial year, the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport handled over 55.12 million passengers, crossing its designed capacity, said a spokesperson from Adani Airport Holdings, which runs both airports in India’s commercial capital.


On 11 November 2023, the airport handled 1,032 Air Traffic Movements (ATMs) in a single day, and is now the world’s busiest single-runway airport. For the economic engine of the world’s fastest growing major economy, it was perhaps less than ideal to have so little headroom for growth.

While the airport in Mumbai is already saturated, the situation in Delhi is slightly different. Delhi’s current airport is still augmenting capacity, and should hold good for another few years, according to a spokesperson from GMR Airports, which operates Indira Gandhi International. The good thing about building Noida International ahead of schedule, he says, is that as and when DEL reaches capacity, DXN would be ready to go.

Meanwhile, Manohar International Airport in North Goa, which started operations in 2023, is perhaps the first of the secondary airports in India, certainly within a small geography, and its success points to the latent demand for these projects.


But why did all this take so much time? Airport executives say that in the last 15 years, nobody expected traffic to grow as it has in India, and that the pace of aviation growth has taken everyone in the ecosystem by surprise.

The buzz around second — and in certain cases third — airports for Indian cities is spreading.

There may be two more airports in and around Bengaluru in a decade’s time, as the government of Tamil Nadu is keen on building an airport in neighbouring Hosur. This is in addition to the current evaluation of sites by the Karnataka government towards the south-west part of Bengaluru.

Another big city where there is buzz around a second airport is Chennai, which recently got an in-principle approval from the Centre for an airport in Parandur, a village in the Kanchipuram district.


A new airport has also been in the works for Pune, but it is caught up in controversies around land acquisition.

There is also talk of a third airport servicing the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, this one around the ambitious Vadhavan Port Project.

Terminal Shift
Airports are gateways to cities and countries. India’s airports are finally getting better at showcasing local culture.

In the first phase of modernisation of India’s airports, designs tended to be functional — almost bland glass-and-steel behemoths.

Notable exceptions included Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (T2) and Kochi International Airport, both of which blended local culture and art seamlessly. Mumbai drew inspiration from the peacock, while Kochi reflected Kerala’s unique traditional roofs.

But now, from being exceptions, more Indian airports seem to be understanding their role as cultural gateways. The much-lauded T2 in Bengaluru is worthy of being the first port of call to India’s Garden City and IT capital. Navi Mumbai International Airport continues this trend — its terminal design is a nod to India’s national flower, the lotus — complementing the existing Mumbai airport’s national bird-inspired design.

Pay More for New?

Globally, multiple airports in the same city compete for passenger traffic. This competition usually ensures that new airports are cheaper, or at least on par, with older ones.

However, in Delhi and Mumbai, the upcoming airports are set to charge significantly higher user development fees (UDF). This raises the question: will passengers prefer sticking with the older airports?

Airport operators argue the higher charges are temporary — in the initial years, passenger volumes will be lower, so UDF is higher. As numbers grow, fees are expected to come down.

They also point out that unlike secondary airports such as Luton in London or Don Mueang in Bangkok, India’s new airports will offer more than a basic transit experience.

Still, this highlights the need for low-cost terminals in India, a country that lacks a true low-cost airline model operating from bare-bones secondary airports.