India – Rajiv Gandhi: Expansion Drive

Hyderabad’s ‘Rajiv Gandhi International Airport’ (RGIA), operated by the GMR group, has drawn up plans to embark on a massive expansion drive, which will eventually expand its annual handling capacity by more than three times to 60 to 70 million passengers a year. The airport, commissioned in 2008 with an initial capacity of 12 million passengers, had handled 15.24 million passengers in financial year 2016/17. It expects the passenger traffic to touch 18 million this financial year. “With the rapid increase in passenger traffic, we are taking up the second-phase expansion which will see doubling of capacity to 25 million passengers. The expansion works, which will be begin in January 2018, will be completed in two years,” SGK Kishore, Chief Executive Officer, GMR Hyderabad International Ltd (GHIAL), told the media. However, he refused to reveal investment details. “We are waiting for the clearance from regulators. We will give the details once we get the go-ahead,” he said. On the further expansion, Kishore said: “We expect to cross the milestone of 25 million annual passengers in three to four years. Then, we will go for a second runway and a second terminal which will also have a capacity of 25 million. We should start developing the second terminal in 2020. Our eventual target is to have an annual capacity of 60 to 70 million passengers at Hyderabad Airport,” he said. Meanwhile, GHIAL, Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB) and Malaysia Tourism Promotion Board (MTPB) have joined hands for promote tourism from the catchment area of the RGIA here to Malaysia. The efforts are aimed at enhancing the visibility of ‘Destination Malaysia’ in Hyderabad and the catchment area of RGIA Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, parts of Odisha and Karnataka. GHIAL CEO Kishore, Datuk Mohd Badlisham Ghazali, Managing Director, MAHB, and Dato' Sri Abdul Khani Daud, Deputy Director General (Promotion), MITBP signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) in the presence of Dato' Hidayat Abdul Hamid, High Commissioner of Malaysia. The tri-partite MoA involves collaborative market research, strategy development, promotional campaigns and marketing efforts, according to GMR. The trend shows that some 100,000 passengers are going to Malaysia every year through various airlines from Hyderabad and the traffic has grown by 28% CAGR in the last five years, Kishore said. “We will see the number of passengers travelling to Malaysia from Hyderabad to double in two years in the wake of this agreement,” he further said. #1060.2