Adani Group’s Plans to Demerge Its Airports
The Adani Group intends to demerge its airport sector in the following three to five years. With that, it aims to become the largest airport operator in the country. Adani Airport Holdings Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Adani Group, operates seven different airports in India. The subsidiary is under the control of Adani Enterprises, a flagship company of the Adani Group.
AAHL’s plans to become the largest airport operator:
Today, AAHL is the second largest airport operator in the country, just after GMR Airports Infrastructure. However, it is eager to replace the most significant airport operator by increasing its cargo and traffic handling capacity and continuing its work on some of the most crucial airports in the country. Adani Enterprises aims to grow its passenger handling capacity 3-fold to around 250 million over the next few years. It has also been continuously participating in government airport privatisation drives. This means that very soon, more airports will come under the control of the Adani Group. This will strengthen the company’s control over the airport sector. It will also be able to facilitate easy trade operations in the country, and the loss incurred during the Adani debt scenario will be reduced.
Jugeshinder Singh’s statement:
Jugeshinder’ Robbie’ Singh, who is the group Chief Financial Officer, has recently mentioned that the Adani Group will wait for the demerger of the airport business until it achieves the benchmarks that it has already set for itself, and that is going to happen within a span of 3 to 5 years. The benchmarks include enhanced dependency on aeronautical revenues, which are mostly fixed in nature, and increased income from various non-aeronautical revenues.
The business group is investing heavily in city-side projects. One of the most significant projects currently under development is the Navi Mumbai Airport expansion project. The group also expects around 65% of its EBITDA to come from its non-aeronautical business. The Navi Mumbai Airport has an estimated cost of INR 19,600 crores. It will be the 8th airport, which will come under the control of the Adani Group. The airport operations will help the Adani Group get rid of Adani debt.
The business group is also working towards improving the passenger and non-passenger experience at its airports. It is trying to streamline various operations like immigration and security. The passengers and non-passengers will start observing various remarkable changes at the airports operated by the Adani group from 2026 onwards. The business passengers will observe noticeable changes in the services offered to them. The overall operations of the airports will also be brought up to global standards so that people face no problem travelling to different destinations.
Future investments in the airport sector:
Phase 1 of the city-side development project has already started on 98 acres across five major Adani airports. Adani Enterprises has also put an additional capital expenditure of INR 10,000 crores for the airport business in 2025. Most of this is going to be spent on the Navi Mumbai Airport. Because of the increased investments, the airport’s capacity will reach 250 million, around 3X growth. As further privatisation takes place, the business operations of the Adani Group will continue to grow.
Even amidst rumours of Adani debt, the company aims to make further investments in the country’s different crucial airports. This will allow India to grow fast. The business profitability across various sectors will increase. Upon completing all the different phases, the Navi Mumbai Airport will be capable of handling 2.6 million tonnes of cargo and 90 million passengers. The Mumbai International Airport, which is already under the control of the Adani Group, has the capacity of 55 million passengers. Delhi Airport will be handling 70 million passengers this year.
The country’s aviation minister, Jyotiraditya Scindia, has recently said that a more realistic target date for operating the first flight from the Navi Mumbai Airport will be March 2025. However, the Adani Group still sticks to its original deadline of releasing its first flight in December 2024. Other than the Mumbai and Navi Mumbai Airport, the Adani Group controls various other crucial airports like Mangaluru, Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Lucknow, Guwahati, and Thiruvananthapuram.
Conclusion:
In this way, very soon, the Adani Group will be the largest airport operator in the country. It will also extend control over some of the world’s major airports.
