The new begining with Merchant Airports !!!

With so much of buzz regarding Indian Aviation, hw can the Airport infrastucture can b (left) behind...from privatisation to PPP models. here comes the merchant airports...

They have been conceptualized as airport infrastructure entirely in private sector with private resources and with no Government funding. The entrepreneur will set up and operate airport on the basis of commercial viability subject to the safety and security oversight of the Government. Such a proposal would dispense with the requirement for investment of Government resources and therefore, a more liberal and only a license based approval procedure could be considered. It is proposed to allow 100% FDI in such airports.‘Merchant Airports’ would be totally built by private companies, land being a State subject, the assistance of State Government would be necessary. Similarly, facilitation by the Central Government in terms of clearances from Defence, Environment etc. would be essential besides the regulatory oversight. The Ministry of Civil Aviation has received 03 proposals so far to develop merchant airports. these are at -

• Gwalior (Madhya Pradesh) - Cargo Airport to be developed by Gwalior Sugar Corporation Ltd.
• Durgapur (West Bengal) - Passenger Airport by a JV of KOlkata based Reality Developer & Haryana based HUDCO.
• Jhhajjar (Haryana) - Cargo Airport (Int'l) by Reliance Industries, may be to supplement its supply chain for which it is also planning to set up a Cargo Airline...

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The all – round development of Indian Aviation…

First came the open sky policy of 1990’s, which gave a boom to full-service carriers, then it again started with Air Deccan as country’s first LCC, then came the modernization of Int’l airports, followed by Non-metro Airports, then came the regional airlines which is now followed by development of nearly 300 airstrips all over India & the latest trend or I can rather say craze in Indian Aviation is Cargo Airlines…Air India has already started its cargo operations with two aircrafts…Jet Airways may also come up with a unit which will be dedicated to only cargo business…some of the upcoming cargo airlines are –->

• Flyington Freighters. It been promoted by Deccan Chronicle Holding & will be based in Hyderabad. It will have scheduled operations to various overseas destination. Its fleet will include a mix of A-330-200F’s & B-777 freighter’s. If everything goes according to plans, having an A-380 in the fleet is also on cards…
• then comes Aryan Cargo Express. It will start as an non-scheduled operator (operating both domestically & overseas)…it will start with a fleet of 03 B-757-200 freighter aircraft & as they will increase their fleet size (may be mid-2008), they may consider entering in to scheduled operations…
• the last one is Air Cargo Express which will start its operations with a fleet of ATR’s…

Its also been heard from industry watchers that Reliance may also consider its cargo airline to compliment its Supply chain…as of now, Bluedart is the only dedicated Air cargo operator in India with a market share of nearly 40% closely followed by Jet Airways with 30% & remaining with other carriers…now, it seems to me that Indian Aviation industry is really booming with all round development & not a single stone is left unturned…

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