Airports at Frankfurt, Dubai, Singapore, Hong Kong and London have been Indian aviation industry’s envy for decades. Despite being the second most-populous country in the world and the second-fastest in terms of growth among large economies, India does not have a single airport hub. The ever-increasing tribe of international tourists from India come back with fantastic tales about the awesome airports they saw overseas and the great duty-free shopping they did.
On the contrary, airports at Delhi and Mumbai were congested, forcing passengers to wait in long queues for security checks and put up with stinking toilets. Americans, Europeans and even south-east Asians landing here regretted the serpentine immigration queues and the poor facilities available to passengers. Such were the infrastructure constraints that there was no real possibility of developing a hub.
The first real opening for a hub has happened now with the new terminal coming up at the Delhi airport on a scale unprecedented in India. In terms of sheer size, quantum of investments and integration of passenger facilities, it is a big milestone for the aviation industry of the country. With 48 boarding gates, 78 aerobridges, 168 check-in counters, 95 immigration counters and capacity to handle 34 million passengers per annum, there is no match for T3. Direct metro connectivity and an airport hotel are added attractions.
The real story, however, is not T3. DIAL has demonstrated that it is possible to think of investments to the tune of $3 billion in an airport project in India and GMR has demonstrated that even massive projects like this can be executed on time. With the infrastructure ready, the big challenge now is to develop Delhi airport into an effective international hub. The Indian carriers which now fly abroad are Air India, Jet Airways and Kingfisher, to be shortly joined by SpiceJet.
Others like IndiGo and GoAir would also join the league as soon as they complete five years of domestic service. One of these carriers has to develop Delhi as its hub and this will be critical to the success of T3. With huge investments having gone in, commercial success of the terminal would be crucial for development airport infrastructure in India. Apart from GMR, others would also develop interest in pumping money into airports if T3 turns out to be a success.
To make Delhi a flourishing base, one of the big full-service carriers has to go big on the hub-&-spoke concept. Passengers from not just nearby locations like Jaipur, Chandigarh and Lucknow, but also other metros and even other countries should be drawn to Delhi for onward-flights to Europe, north America and south-east Asia.
If the Delhi hub succeeds, Chennai, Hyderabad, Bangalore and Kolkata will also stand a chance of attracting investments and attention of airlines interested in developing hubs. If big players like Jet, Kingfisher and Air India could be encouraged to nurture one hub each, India will justify its favourable geographical location at least partially.
By developing hubs of their own, Indian carriers can win back the traffic they have lost over the years to the likes of Emirates, Singapore Airlines, Cathay and Lufthansa who fly a large number of Indian passengers to the US, Canada, various European destinations, China, Japan and Australia. The success of T3 as a hub will determine not just investments into airport infrastructure, but also the development of Indian airline companies into global leaders of the type the Air India-Indian Airlines merger envisaged.
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