Ahmedabad airport spread 'unviable'

Paper attributes inconsistent air traffic growth in the state to social disruption

Even as the government of Gujarat is weighing options to expand the state's civil aviation sector, a report prepared by Ernst & Young (E&Y) along with EMA Unihorn (India) Pvt Ltd says that the expansion of the Sardar Vallabhai International Airport in Ahmedabad is not viable.

According to the report called Aviation master plan for Gujarat, social disruption (read communal violence) has led to inconsistent and sluggish air traffic growth in the state which also led to an economic slowdown in the immediate hinterland.

The aviation master plan was recently handed over to the Gujarat Infrastructure Development Board (GIDB) and bureaucrats. The government, which is studying the report, will initiate action in consultation with the Union civil aviation ministry.

The E&Y report, quoting a decline in domestic passengers from Sardar Patel Airport during 1995-96 and 2002-03, said there was a substantial rise in international passengers in 2002-03.

While in 1995-96 the airport handled 800,940 domestic passengers, it came down to 768,135 in 2001-02. With the addition of over half-a-dozen flights, this number rose to 818,018 in 2002-03, though much less than 1995-96.

Describing that the growth in air traffic at the airport was inconsistent and sluggish, the report said, "The immediate reasons for the slow growth at the Ahmedabad airport are natural disaster and social disruption, economic slowdown in immediate hinterland and also a shift from domestic to international flights. The slow growth of the Jamnagar airport was because of unreliability of flights and awkward flight timings and also a chunk of passengers shifting to the Rajkot airport which offers flexible flight timings."

The report mentioned that because of unreliability of flights and awkward flight timings and a shift to Bhuj airport, the Kandla Airport is now idle and discontinuation of scheduled flights led to another idle airport, Keshod Airport in Junagadh district.

While the Vadodara Airport has been reporting a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 10.5 per cent, the Porbandar airstrip reported a 9.9 per cent CAGR, Jamnagar airport reported a negative CAGR at 2.6 per cent and Bhavnagar airport also witnessed a similar trend.

The Bhuj airport has been growing at a 7.9 per cent CAGR. Interestingly, the report says that while there would be a five per cent yearly growth in international passengers from Sardar Patel Airport in Ahmedabad till 2015, domestic passenger growth would be only three per cent.

The highest growth rate is projected for Rajkot Airport at six per cent because of the likelihood of connectivity to Delhi and new intra-state traffic link, while the Vadodara Airport may see a five per cent growth because of high historical growth trend. The report also points towards a possible diversion of traffic to Surat Airport once it is fully equipped.

The report said a new international airport in Ahmedabad would cost Rs 1,200 crore which could not be a financially viable option 'even with reasonable addition of commercial space development'.

Looking at the potential of general traffic growth, E&Y suggested that a Rs 70 crore of investment in Vadodara Airport, including costs for setting up an aircraft maintenance hub, would be a financially attractive option.

It also suggested investment of Rs 80 crore in the Surat Airport and Rs 47 crore in Rajkot Airport.

To serve the industrial areas of Bharuch district, the report suggested an airstrip in Ankleshwar at Rs 16 crore to start with.