Passengers for Hyderabad Airport to Go Down This Year

Wednesday, 25th April 2012 at 04:33am

Hyderabad Rajiv Gandhi International Airport (HRGIA) is expecting a lower number of passengers travelling this year as India's domestic airlines are affected by local challenges.

The chief executive of HRGIA, Vikram R Jaisinghani, spoke to some media personnel saying, "We closed last year with 16 per cent growth, recording the second-highest passenger traffic after the Delhi airport. Passenger numbers, however, don't look as attractive as last year, courtesy the domestic airline sector passing through tough times. To maintain last year's growth is challenging."

Last year a total of 8.6 million domestic and international passengers were served by the HRGIA. Jaisinghani shared that last year the total number of traffic for international passengers in Hyderabad did not really grow much because of a capacity crunch saying, "We foresee a 10 per cent growth in international passenger traffic as we expect a lot of bilaterals to come through this year."

HRGIA is planning to boost its cargo having handled 82,000 tonne in the 2011-12 financial year, most being pharmaceutical products. Jaisinghani stated, "Pharma still dominates the cargo scene at Hyderabad. Going forward, this will change as we intend to make this airport as the country's main cargo hub. Our idea is to send cargo from potential locations like Visakhapatnam, Pune and Nagpur via Hyderabad airport. Last year, we reported 9 per cent growth in exports. It should be 9-10 per cent this fiscal."

India's airports are also affected by the struggling airlines having pending receivables from airlines like Kingfisher and Air India with Jaisinghani saying that the airport will be talking to the airlines soon, "These things are not going to remain for long. We look forward to growing business with them."

In the next two months HRGIA is arranging to incorporate international names to help improve the airport's retail business and is looking at getting rid of 100 equity of the GHIAL owned Hyderabad Duty Free Retail Limited. HRGIA is currently accepting bids saying, "At present, our non-aero revenues stand at 40 per cent, which we expect to touch 50 per cent in two-three years down the line."

By: Pete Lee.