US firm plans biz centre at Delhi a'port

Houston-based Universal Weather & Aviation, a support service provider for travel in corporate and private aircraft, has approached GMR Infrastructure to run a terminal dedicated to non-commercial travel in Delhi. GMR had won the bid for the modernisation of the Delhi airport last year.

The American company's proposal includes developing a parking lot and hangar as well as a state-of-the-art business centre where corporates can hold meetings.

At present, it operates dedicated private terminals for corporate aircraft and general aviation in cities like Singapore, Paris, London and Mexico.

"No corporate executive travelling in a business jet can afford to waste 90 minutes on check-out (including immigration and customs). It should never take more than 30 minutes after arrival for the executive to be in the car, en route to his meeting. All this needs to be addressed in the masterplan for the Delhi and Mumbai airports. We have met with GMR and have received positive feedback from them," said C Gregory Evans, chief executive officer, Universal Weather & Aviation Inc.

Evans has also met officials at the Ministry of Civil Aviation and will be shortly meeting GVK representatives. GVK had won the bid for the modernisation of the Mumbai airport.

Universal claims to have 80 per cent of 500 Fortune companies as its clients. While the company is not in the business of leasing or selling business aircraft, it provides its clients with an entire array of support services such as flight planning, refuelling of aircraft, visa/passport and customs arrangements, ground transportation, hotel coordination, etc. Universal said it supports 13,000 flights globally every month.