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V. Rishi Kumar

Hyderabad, March 17 The GMR group-promoted Rajiv Gandhi International Airport (RGIA) near Hyderabad, which completes one year of operations on March 22, has charted out a strategy to consolidate its business and establish an international transshipment cargo hub.

The Chief Commercial Officer and Vice-President, GMR International Airport Ltd, Mr A. Vishwanath, said the cargo hub will come up in a 250-acre multi-product special economic zone with an investment of about Rs 100 crore.

On consolidation, he said the focus would be on developing maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) facilities, passenger flow and infrastructure for aerotropolis.

Mr Vishwanath told Business Line that cargo is the next big business opportunity for the airport. “Located centrally the airport is within 3 to 5 hours of flying reach of countries in the Far East,” he explained.

The airport has developed an air cargo complex. While this year it is likely to close with 50,000 tonnes, both domestic and international, it is projecting 75,000 tonnes next year.

The RJIA had already announced the setting up of a perishable cargo centre to provide logistics support to cargo connecting South East Asia, West Asia, Europe and the US.

Referring to the overall airport business, Mr Vishwanath said that the domestic travel has been marginally lower compared to last year due to tough economic conditions. As against the expected 6.7 million passengers, we are poised to close with about 6.4 million.

While the domestic traffic was lower by 14 per cent, the international traffic has grown by about 10 per cent. The passenger traffic is in the ratio of 80:20 (domestic:international). The international traffic growth was aided by the addition of four new airliners—Air Arabia, Air India, British Airways and Gulf Air.

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