Sops for carriers using non-metro airports

The Centre will offer incentives to carriers to de-congest airports in Mumbai and Delhi.

On the second day of Investors Summit for Aviation and Tourism organised by the Centre for Asia and Pacific Aviation in Mumbai today, minister for civil aviation, Praful Patel said: "The government's aviation policy has considered the traffic in the Mumbai and Delhi airports during peak hours. We have laid down certain incentives which will benefit carriers which will consider flying in and out of these secondary airports rather than use these cities every time." He declined to spell out the incentives though.

Patel stated that the documentation for the modernisation of the Mumbai and Delhi airports is complete and the bids would be discussed tomorrow.

Citing examples of airports such as Gatwick and Luton, He said the government was considering construction of an additional 30 non-metro airports along with six Greenfield airports, which would assist the six existing airports in handling the international traffic and 90 per cent of the domestic traffic of the country.

He declared that Nagpur airport would be made the hub of cargo movements and multi nodal passenger traffic.