After low cost carriers, India to embrace low cost airports

By Mihir Mishra
NEW DELHI: The government is planning to build small airports with rudimentary facilities, in order to bring down the cost of flying.

Such airports will be a world apart from the swanky ones at Delhi and Mumbai. As per a blue print being prepared by the Airports Authority of India (AAI), these airports, which will be located in small towns, will lack conveyor belts, arrival lounges and even air-conditioning.

Passengers will have to be check in their luggage manually. One air traffic control ( ATC) tower will cater to a number of such airports.

“Our plan is to keep the cost of building and operating these airports to a minimum. This means the security will be taken care by police personnel from the respective states and harnessing solar energy to power the airports,” said a senior Authority of India official.

The official added that the plan being discussed, includes remote-controlled ATCs.

“We plan to have one ATC tower that will be able to guide planes for more than one such airport. Not every airport would re

quire full-fledged ATC since there won’t be so many flights,” said the official.

As part of a plan to improve regional connectivity, the government plans to develop 50 low-cost airports in smaller cities across the country. The prime ministers office ( PMO), which held a meeting last week, has asked the civil aviation ministry to develop five such no-frills airports during the current fiscal year.

Fliers will be asked to arrive only half an hour before the departure of their flights in order to minimise waiting. In any case, they would have nothing to do at these airports.

As the airport would not have an arrival lounges passengers would be able directly exit airport from the plane.

“Minimal stay at airports would not require us to provide a lot of facilities making our costs low,” said the official.

The cost, with such initiatives, are expected to be very low and are estimated to come up for as low as Rs 50 crore for every airport.

These airports will be built in the form of modules, which means a block can be added once there is increase in demand.