Times of India: Surat: Friday,
September 09, 2016.
All is not
well with the Airport Authority of India (AAI) when it come to managing
airports of Gujarat. As per the information sought under the Right to
Information Act (RTI), AAI incurred a losses of Rs 86 crore while managing the
airports in Gujarat during 2015-16.
This detail
was revealed in the RTI reply given by AAI to Surat Airport Action Committee
(SAAC) president Sanjay Ezhawa, who had sought information on income generated
from airports in Gujarat.
As per the
RTI reply given by AAI, Ahmedabad is the only airport where it earned profit of
Rs 73.80 crore in FY16. The other airports in Gujarat incurred losses during
the same time. As per the AAI figures, Ahmedabad has around 140 flight
movements per day followed by Vadodara 22, Rajkot 6 and five each in Surat and
Bhuj. Despite of the Airbus and Boeing category flights from Vadodara and
Rajkot, the AAI is incurring losses every year.
On the other
hand, the passenger movement from Ahmedabad is 17,979 passengers per day.
Despite 22 flight movements per day, Vadodara has 3,150 passenger movements per
day. Same is with Rajkot having six flight with movement of 429 passengers per
day. However, with just five flights per day, the passenger movement at Surat
is 424 per day.
Ezhawa told
TOI, "If Surat airport gets more air connectivity like Vadodara, the
passenger movements per day could increase and this would generate more revenue
for the AAI."
Indian
Airlines began its operations with an ATR aircraft. It recently increased the
frequency between Surat and Delhi with Airbus operation in the evening and CRJ
operations in the morning. Also, the AI operate on the Surat-Mumbai sector in
the morning for three days to six days a week.
Official
sources said that the AAI is spending over Rs 100 crore for the upgradation of
infrastructural facilities at the Surat airport after the buffalo-hit incident
in 2014. The work on the extension of runway from the existing 2,250 meters to
2,905 meters is going on with the completion deadline set for January-2017.
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