Airports may get regional, global status

The government is planning to reclassify airports in an attempt to develop their infrastructure and capacity. The airports will be classified as international and regional hubs, replacing the current classification of metro and non-metro airports.

International hubs, which will handle international traffic, will have world-class facilities.

These include convenient connections to international and domestic destinations, airport-related infrastructure like hotels, shopping areas, conference and entertainment facilities and aircraft maintenance bases. They will have the status of international airports for purposes of bilateral agreements.

Regional hubs, as the name suggests, will handle regional traffic. They will act as the operational base for regional airlines and have all the facilities currently marked for model airports, including the capability to handle limited international traffic.

"There is a need to develop the regional market. There will be steps to promote traffic to these regional hubs," said Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel.

The identification of regional hubs will be made on the basis of market demand, traffic demand and the requirements of the airlines. State governments will be associated with the project as co-promoters of regional airlines.

One of the options under consideration is to take policy initiatives to help start and operationalise smaller airlines with smaller aircraft to serve the regional markets.

There is also a plan to develop other airports on the basis of individual needs to meet traffic requirements. The short-term objective will be to clear incoming international passengers within 45 minutes of arrival and clear departing passengers in 60 minutes, including check-in-time.

Similar targets of 30 and 45 minutes, respectively, will be laid down for domestic flights.