Adani rival GMR plans $2 billion expansion at two India airports

GMR Airports Ltd., the main competitor to Adani Group’s airports operator, is planning to spend as much as 194 billion rupees ($2 billion) to expand its New Delhi and Hyderabad facilities, a sign of bullish expectations for India’s aviation market over the coming decade.

The investments, spread over the next five to seven years, are aimed at boosting capacity and modernizing infrastructure to keep pace with rapidly rising passenger volumes, Saurabh Chawla, company’s executive director for finance and strategy said in an interview.

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The plans come as demand is surging in the world’s third-largest domestic aviation market, trailing only the US and China. India’s flier traffic is projected to grow six-fold to around 1.1 billion passengers over the next 14 years, while its commercial airline fleet is seen increasing from 400 planes as of 2014 to more than 2,350 aircraft by 2040, according to government estimates.

The company is earmarking about 138 billion rupees for Rajiv Gandhi International Airport in the southern industrial hub of Hyderabad and as much as 56 billion rupees for the New Delhi airport, Chawla said. The investments will be funded by a mix of debt and equity by the respective airport ventures and not directly tied to GMR Airports, which is the holding company.

Once completed, Hyderabad’s upgraded airport will be able to accommodate about 80 million passengers, or more than double its current annual volume of 34 million fliers.

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GMR Airports is India’s largest airport operator by number of fliers annually while rival Adani Airport Holdings Ltd. is the biggest by number of airports. The Adani conglomerate is looking to invest $15 billion to boost passenger capacity at its aviation facilities over the next five years, Bloomberg News reported in December.

Build-Outs

Chawla said the build-outs in New Delhi and Hyderabad may be just the beginning of a modernization drive at GMR Airports, whose portfolio includes six airports in India, one in the Philippines and another under construction in Greece.

“Investment plans for the new airport at Nagpur, just taken over in June 2026, are under discussions,” he said.

GMR Airports, in which France’s Aeroports de Paris SA owns 26.5%, will focus on bidding for local airport projects that the Indian government plans to sell, Chawla said, adding that no discussions are underway involving redevelopment of overseas airport projects.

The senior executive also said the Hyderabad-based GMR Group isn’t keen to enter the airline business, even if the Indian government tweaks the rules to permit such a move.

India is discussing a policy change that would allow airport operators to run airlines, Bloomberg reported last month. The government wants to boost competition given that two airlines — IndiGo and Air India — control nearly 90% of the local market.

“We’re not interested,” Chawla said, explaining the group wants to stay focused on its core airport business and related operations such as aircraft maintenance and real estate development around its aviation facilities.