Tech companies like NIIT, Tech Mahindra, others eye big business from small airports

MUMBAI: Technology services companies are seeing increased demand from regional airports as more passengers fly in and out of smaller cities and the government looks to modernise those airports as well as privatise others.

In September, the government announced plans to privatise six airports—Kolkata, Chennai, Lucknow, Guwahati, Jaipur and Ahmedabad. Also afoot are plans to build 34 non-metro airports with new terminals at Bhubaneshwar, Ranchi, Puducherry and Kadappa nearing completion.

“There is an increased interest in upgrading IT. The government has seen the difference between the privatised and public airports and now has the money to upgrade the airports. It’s a focus on security and customer satisfaction,” said Amrit Pandurangi, senior director at Deloitte.

SITA, a technology company that specialises offering services to the air transport industry estimates that airport IT spending will touch $6 billion (Rs 37,000 crore) this year, globally. There are no India-specific estimates.

"It is being driven by a need to improve services to customers. Whether airports are privatised or not, providing improved services is a top priority," said John Kendall, security program director, Asia Pacific Unisys, which provided system integration services for the Terminal 3 at the Delhi International Airport.


The Airports Authority of India is also working on several technology initiatives, including an Airports Operations Control Centre which will automate airport operations to improve efficiency and the Airports Information Management System to streamline aspects such as revenue and billing.

Earlier this year, New Delhi based NIIT Technologies won a Rs 344 crore contract to create airport automation control centres for 10 airports in India. Industry players expect the tenders for at least 10 more airports to be issued after the first implementation is completed. The Airports Authority of India did not respond to requests for comment.

Pune-based KPIT Technologies, which is rolling out an enterprise resource planning system across 125 airports, sees further opportunities in the other IT initiatives from airports. “We do see regional airports wanting to automate their systems.

While they work with the AAI, they also have some authority and budget to handle some IT requirements on their own. The big airports have been privatised, so we do expect increased competition for footfalls to drive this,” said Pawan Sharma, president and head of integrated enterprise solutions, at KPIT.

Industry players say improving the ability to track luggage and prevent loss, dealing with self-booking systems, creating a common system to reconcile processes such as cargo handling and catering are seeing increased interest. The technology deals however have a long lead time and there is still some time to implementation.

“Airports have been trying to upgrade for some time but now we are seeing new impetus. I think it is on the horizon but the conversion of new deals would still take about 18 months,” Arvind Mehrotra, president APAC and Australia, at NIIT Technologies said. The opportunity for players is not just restricted to India.

Tech Mahindra, which will also chase the deals for Indian airport upgrades, sees the shift to upgrade as a more global phenomenon.