Kindly share with us the idea behind inception of Airport Authority of India Limited as a company.

With unprecedented growth in economy India witnessed an unprecedented surge in air traffic. India witnessed passenger growth of as high as 20% and above. From airport operations point of view, it was a huge challenge to manage this growth.  To systematically manage the growth and provide better administration and cohesive management of airports, Civil Enclaves and Air navigation services, Airports Authority of India was constituted in 1994 through an Act of Parliament.

Kindly throw some light on the financial parameters of the company.

Performance of AAI on financial front has been consistent. Our revenue has grown steadily for past several years from 8170 crores in year 2013-14 to 10824 crores in year 2015-16 and will be touching around 12000 crores in the FY 2016-17. We expect that growth in revenues beyond 2017-18 will be at the rate of 8 to 9%. We have been giving regular dividends to the Government and we contributed close to Rs. 800 crores to the Govt. in FY 2016-17. 

What qualitative and quantitative changes you wish you make in Airport Authority of India Ltd. as a CMD of the company?

Quantitatively, though tremendous efforts have been made in providing and upgrading existing air and ground infrastructure, the infrastructure gaps are always there.  It is a challenge to be able to anticipate demand well in time, prepare & plan accordingly and create quality infrastructure.  All efforts are being made to provide adequate runways, taxiways, sufficient airside capacity, Terminal Buildings with adequate facilities for the passengers and a very sound and reliable Air Navigation support system.  We plan to augment infrastructure across Indian airports with CAPEX to the tune of Rs. 17,500 crores in the next few years. We have plans to operationalize about 44 number of unserved/underserved airports under RCS.  Plans are underway to provide connectivity to Tier-II, III cites and remote areas.

On the quality front AAI airports have been geared up to provide Quality Customer Services. Two of our airports Jaipur and Srinagar have been rated as first and second in the world rankings. Other airports are now at par with the global standards. We are striving towards achieving excellence in Customer Satisfaction by adopting world class technology and processes. 

What does the company do or is planning to do to keep the morale of the employees high so as to help increase productivity?

Motivated work force USP of any organization. AAI takes utmost care in nurturing and retaining the talent which is one of the best available in the country. AAI has a system in place through several training institutes for regular trainings and refresher courses wherever required to keep the officials abreast with the latest in the field. The pay and perks to the employees are one of the best in the country. Apart from that there are regular activities related to sports and culture where participation is encouraged. There is also a system in place in the organization to reward special efforts put in by an employee through awards and cash rewards.  

Do you have any dream projects/ideas in mind which will take AAI to the greater heights?

AAI has firmed up plans for augmenting infrastructure at key airports to augment the capacity and provide capacity ahead of demand and create enhanced passenger facilities. To cater for the future demand expected in next ten years AAI is geared up to construct New Terminal Buildings at Agartala, Guwahati, Leh and Gorakhpur; 

Expansion of Existing Terminal Buildings- Phase 2 is planned at Chennai, Trichy, Srinagar, Pune, Patna, Lucknow, Bagdogra and Mangalore. Construction / Expansion of Terminal Buildings is in progress at Vadodara, Hubli, Belgaum, Kishangarh, Pakyong, Tezu, Port Blair, Jammu and Calicut; 

Extension/ strengthening/ resurfacing of runways is in progress at Kolkata, Chennai, Surat, Trivandrum, Calicut, Ahmedabad , Jaipur, Dibrugarh, Vadodara. 

Construction/ expansion of Apron is in progress at Vijaywada, Tirupati, Trivandrum, Raipur, Ranchi, Mangalore, Vishakhapatnam, Rajamundry. 

New ATC Tower cum technical Block has been planned at Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Raipur, Varanasi, Jabalpur, Bhopal, Trivandrum, Trichy, Khajuraho, Puducherry, Guwahati, Bhubaneshwar, and Vishakhapatnam. 

On ANS front CATFM (Central-Air Traffic flow management) is planned to be implemented shortly. The system will cover entire Indian airspace and integrate various subsystems with a decision support capability to safely, efficiently, and predictably manage demand when it exceeds capacity in various phases of flight thus regulating flow of traffic to minimize delays and congestion. The stakeholders i.e. Airlines will benefit enormously in form of improvement in overall turn-around time of aircraft resulting in considerable savings in fuel consumption and significant reduction in carbon emissions. sustainable development is planned through Green initiatives like establishment of Central Air Traffic Flow Management  CATFM, Implementation of RNAV – ATS routes in enroute phase, Implementation of approach procedures with GNSS such as Baro- V, GAGAN based LPV procedures to provide better all-weather access to airports, thereby bringing down the instances of diversion that lead to avoidable fuel burn. 

Use of solar green energy is being encouraged. Several solar power plants have been operationalized.  6.8 MW capacity roof top solar power plants and 19.8 MW ground mounted solar power plants are in progress. There are plans for replacement of all internal and external lightings at 15 airports with LED lights in this financial year. In addition airfield lighting systems being installed are planned based on LED to conserve energy. 

AAI is geared up to provide logistical and technical supports to the State Governments for bringing up Greenfield Airports and Operationalization of their airports. 

Where do you see the company in next 10 years period?

Currently, India has 476 airstrips/ airports out of which 98 are operational and around 75 have scheduled operations. We are one of the five fastest growing aviation markets globally and currently the 9th largest Civil Aviation market in the world. However, India, continues to be the least penetrated market in the world with 0.4 trips per capita per annum as compared to 2 in US.  We have 300 million strong middle class population with disposable income to travel at least once in a year by air.  With rapidly growing economy and no. of people increasing in the bracket of those having disposable income, the Indian aviation has got right potential to expand. India aims to become the 3rd largest market by 2020 and the largest by 2030.  It is our endeavor that in next 10 years we will significantly contribute towards the aviation industry to reach to the pinnacle, not only as far as the size of the industry is concerned but also as the leaders with respect to quality of air services and the customer satisfaction.

Our endeavor would be to make AAI the world leader in the field of Airport Operation and Air Navigation Services (ANS) and one of the major player in the aviation world within Asia Pacific Region. The aim is towards creating an integrated ecosystem with support of Govt. of India to make flying affordable for the masses with traffic touching 50 crores domestic passengers, 20 crores international passengers and 10 million tones Cargo per annum by 2027.