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http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1491066.cms
Travel boom flies past some airports
G GANAPATHY SUBRAMANIAM
TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ SATURDAY, APRIL 15, 2006 12:55:46 AM]
NEW DELHI: NEW DELHI: What is common between Jaipur, Srinagar, Khajuraho,
Agra, Port Blair, Jaisalmer, Varanasi and Agatti?
Though they are all tourist hotspots, the airports they house are in the
red. It may sound ironic, especially if you consider the boom in travel
during the past couple of years, but the airports at these destinations do
not make a single penny by way of profits.
What's worse, the civil aviation ministry feels there isn't much scope to
turn these facilities profitable unless passenger traffic grows in a big
way.
Virtually all airports linking key tourist destinations of the country are
making losses and the trend covers every part of the country: From Bagdogra
in the East, which is the gateway to Darjeeling and Sikkim; to Jaisalmer in
the West; and Srinagar up North to Port Blair down South.
Red ink also dogs the balance sheets of airports that serve popular
destinations like Tirupati and Jammu, which are thronged by lakhs of
pilgrims.
According to data collated by the ministry, the Varanasi airport lost Rs
14.5 crore during '04-05. Lakhs of tourists, both domestic as well as
foreign, visit the holy city every year and the Varanasi airport even had
flights connecting Kathmandu, apart from domestic destinations like Delhi
and Kolkata, till recently.
The airport located at the city of Taj, Agra, lost Rs 4.6 crore during the
year. Jaipur, the other point linking the tourist triangle anchored by
Delhi, fared far worse with losses of Rs 12.7 crore. The airports at Kullu,
Dehradun and Kangra are also in the red.
Apart from tourist destinations, a number of airports located at state
capitals are also in red. The Patna airport lost nearly Rs 11.9 crore in '
04-05, while the Bhopal airport lost Rs 8.8 crore. In any case, 116 of the
126 airports managed by the Airports Authority of India (AAI) make losses.
The Guwahati airport, the gateway to the North-East, is among the list of
non-profitable airports with losses of Rs 51 crore, followed by Bhubaneshwar
with Rs 14.7 crore, Lucknow (Rs 10.8 crore), Thiruvananthapuram (Rs 4.3
crore), Chandigarh (Rs 2.7 crore) Shimla (Rs 2.6 crore) and Ahmedabad (Rs
1.9 crore).
The ministry cites 'very low traffic' as the reason for consistent losses at
these airports. The current feeling is that it was 'very difficult' to
convert these facilities into profit-making airports. Efforts are now on to
cut expenditure at these airports so that losses can at least be curbed.
The Safdarjung airport at Delhi, where all flying activity has been banned
due to security reasons, lost Rs 7 crore during '04-05. The flight training
school located there has been grounded functional as the airport is located
near key installations like Parliament, President's Estate and the Prime
Minister's residence.
The airport at Gaya made losses of Rs 6.4 crore, even though it is a key
pilgrimage destination for Buddhists while the Khajuraho airport lost Rs 6.7
crore in '04-05. The Port Blair airport, which is the gateway to the Andaman
& Nicobar islands, lost Rs 3.5 crore during the year, while the Jammu
airport made a loss of Rs 5.5 crore.
The Nagpur airport, that is now being converted into a cargo hub, lost Rs 29
crore during '04-05. The Agatti airport, which serves the Lakshadweep
islands, made losses to the tune of Rs 13 crore.
The 116 loss-making airports of AAI are sustained through the earnings to 10
profitable airports, which include Delhi and Mumbai that are being shifted
to private managements now. Some of the loss-making facilities are civilian
enclaves run by AAI at defence airports.
Among the major losers are Allahabad (Rs 16.1 crore loss during '04-05),
Belgaum (Rs 15.8 crore), Silchar (Rs 14.9 crore), Hubli (Rs 13 crore),
Agartala (Rs 8.4 crore) Amritsar (Rs 7.5 crore), Mangalore (Rs 6.3 crore),
Dibrugarh (Rs 4.1 crore), Udaipur (Rs 4 crore), Raipur (Rs 3.6 crore) and
Visakapatnam (Rs 2.7 crore).
The ministry is looking at modernisation of many of these airports by AAI
under its policy for non-metro airports
============
Anybody have any dope on Dabolim's financials? Is it a loss-making airport
or a money maker? What does the Navy earn annually from its operation? Who
pays for capex such as runway upgrades etc (if any)? Unfortunately the
article above is tantalisingly uninformative on these counts!
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