Global aviation hub a distant dream for India

Despite massive capacity expansions, Delhi and Mumbai airports will not be able to bridge the yawning gap with airports run by the Asian tigers, China and Dubai, raising questions about Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel's vision of making India a competitive global aviation hub within Asia.

Delhi, which currently has a capacity to handle only 12 million passengers a year, is being expanded so that by 2010 it can support 37 million passengers and hit 50 million by 2012. Mumbai airport, which has limited capacity for expansion, is being expanded to handle 40 million passengers annually by 2010.

But these capacities pale in comparison to the massive investments in airports like Changi in Singapore, Dubai airport, Suvarnabhhumi airport in Bangkok, Incheon in South Korea or even Beijing airport.

For instance, with the completion of a new terminal (terminal 3) in Changi with an investment of $1.75 billion, the airport will have a capacity to handle over 70 million passengers from 2008, nearly double Delhi's capacity in 2010.

And with the Olympic Games round the corner in 2008, Beijing Capital Airport -- the largest in China -- is completing a massive investment programme to almost double the capacity to 60 million passengers by the end of this year, a number that Delhi and Mumbai will not reach even in 2012.

In the Gulf, Dubai airport -- the hub for Emirates Airlines -- is investing $ 4.5 billion to handle over 70 million passengers annually by 2009. Experts say Delhi will only be able to hit this capacity only after 2015.

And Bangkok's relatively new airport, Suvarnabhumi, has already reached saturation point, handling over 42 million passengers a year (it has the capacity to handle 45 million).

Plans are already on to expand the capacity to 100 million passengers in the next few years, though they are not yet finalised. Even Incheon airport on the outskirts of Seoul will hit a capacity of 44 million passengers a year by July 2008, just before the Beijing Olympics for which construction is already on.

It has also worked out an expansion target to hit 100 million a year by 2020 and is working on airport plans to host the Asian Games in 2014.

So is India too late in the global hub game?

Kapil Kaul, who heads Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation (CAPA) in India, says: "I think we have missed the bus in terms of being a hub. Airports like Dubai and Singapore have ensured through their expansion and liberal policy that Indians use it as a hub to fly to the US and UK."