New flight approvals to take longer

Infrastructural constraints force decision, move affects expansion plans of carriers

Faced with a problem of increasing flight frequencies and the resultant pressure on the limited infrastructure, the Hyderabad airport authority is now going slow in sanctioning new flights to existing airlines.

Amongst Tier-II international airports in the country, the Hyderabad airport is the second busiest in terms of scheduled aircraft movement. The Hyderabad airport is even ahead of busier destinations like Thiruvananthpuram, Ahmedabad and Kochi.

The average number of flights operating from Hyderabad airport has doubled to 670 flights a week in February 2005 as compared to 350 flights just a year back. In February alone, 2,678 flights (both arrivals and departures) were operated.

"Operators such as Air Sahara, Lufthansa and Malaysian Airlines want to increase the frequency of their flights to various destinations from Hyderabad. But they have to wait for some more time before infrastructure problems arising out of this sudden rush in air traffic is sorted out," a senior official of the Hyderabad Airport told Business Standard.

"On Thursday alone , 62 arrivals were registered at our airport, which means the daily traffic, both arrivals and departures, now range between 100 and 150 a day. We never imagined the air traffic to grow at this pace," an Air Traffic Control (ATC) official at the airport said.

This year, the Hyderabad airport is expected to handle about 2.71 million passengers, registering a 25 per cent growth. These numbers are based on the passenger traffic growth in the first nine months of the current fiscal.

According to the official, going by the current rate of growth in passenger traffic, the new Hyderabad International Airport coming up at Shamshabad may again have to struggle to handle the volume of traffic.

As per estimations in the detailed project report, the new international airport will handle about 5 million passengers in phase I which is expected to be completed by August 2008.

"This kind of passenger growth would mean that the project developers will have to take up the second stage works almost immediately after commencement of commercial operations in 2008," a senior government official said.

"At present, the airport management is considering new proposals on a case-by-case basis since the authorities are receiving applications that include permission to operate helicopters, introduction of new domestic flights, increasing frequency on existing routes and handling of cargo."

Air traffic over Hyderabad increased from January 2005 after the state government introduced sales tax rebate on the sale of air turbine fuel (ATF) in October last year.

Besides this, several international flights have been introduced by private airlines like Lufthansa and Qatar Airways. This has made Hyderabad the preferred destination for passengers who want to fly directly to Europe, US and the Middle East, adding to the spurt in passenger movement.

When it comes to passenger traffic, the passenger turnover during February 2005 stood at 3.67 lakh as compared with the average monthly traffic of 2.25 lakh during the first three quarters of the current fiscal, ending December 2004.

In January 2005, the passenger traffic was 2.62 lakh (all figures excluding direct transit).

The domestic aircraft movement witnessed a 39 per cent growth in the first nine months of the current financial year alone as compared to the corresponding period in 2003 as the number of domestic flights increased to over 21,391 from 15,389 flights in the previous year.

Over 25 per cent growth in the passenger traffic and 34 per cent growth in cargo handling have been registered during the same period.

Apart from the scheduled passenger flights, the ATC also has to cope with pressure from trainee sorties and Indian Air Force flights. It is also advising the training aircraft to operate only during the night.

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Bursting at the seams

• The average number of flights operating from Hyderabad airport has doubled to 670 flights a week in February 2005 as compared to 350 flights just a year back
• This year, the Hyderabad airport is expected to handle about 2.71 million passengers, registering a 25 per cent growth
• Air traffic over Hyderabad increased from January 2005 after the state government introduced sales tax rebate on the sale of air turbine fuel (ATF) in October last year
• The passenger turnover during February 2005 stood at 3.67 lakh as compared with the average monthly traffic of 2.25 lakh during the first three quarters of the current fiscal, ending December 2004