Ten cities, including the six metros, will need another airport by 2020, according to a study by the Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation.
While nine -- Delhi, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Chennai, Pune, Nagpur, Ahmedabad and Amritsar -- will need a second airport, Mumbai, where a second airport is already coming up, will need a third, the study says.
According to the report, around $30 billion will have to be invested to develop various airports in the country. This is apart from the $9 billion that Civil Aviation Joint Secretary KN Shrivastava said would be spent in the next four-and-a-half years by the Airports Authority of India and private developers.
Mumbai and Delhi airports, being modernised by the private sector, handle more than 20 million passengers per annum and will be saturated by 2010, when passenger traffic touches 25-30 million in Mumbai and 30-40 million in Delhi, the study has found.
The existing airports in Bangalore and Hyderabad will be saturated in 2008, when the traffic will touch 10 million. That is when the two greenfield airports in these cities are expected to be operational.
Kolkata Airport, which handles more than 5 million passengers, will need a second airport by 2010, in spite of the proposed modernisation of the airport by the Airport Authority of India. While most metros will reach the saturation point by 2010, the non-metros will be saturated by 2015, the report says.
However, the industry is divided whether the country should go for more airports or replace the existing airports with new ones. Air Deccan Chairman G Gopinath said the government's decision to close down the existing airports was impractical.
"Nowhere in the world have we seen airports being closed down. Why should Delhi have one airport or why should the existing Bangalore Airport be closed after the new one comes up? Competing airports help segregate traffic. In Hyderabad and Bangalore, the government monopoly has been replaced with a private monopoly. What we need is competition between airports so that the carriers get the best service and price," said Gopinath.
Kingfisher chief Vijay Mallya said a few days ago that the existing airports at Bangalore and Hyderabad should not be closed down.
Says Kapil Kaul, CEO, CAPA, "Technically, closing down an airport seems unfeasible when we are talking of such a huge growth in traffic."
Some industry experts say a few cities do need new airports in place of the existing ones.
"Pune Airport handles around 1.5 million passengers per year. With all the development work going on, we will need another airport in 2012, when the passenger traffic reaches 3 million, but there should be an alternative airport to handle all the traffic. We do not need two airports for Pune," said a Pune airport official.
Currently, there are three second-airport projects already in various stages of discussions in Mumbai, Delhi and Chennai.
The Rs 9,000-crore (Rs 90 billion) Navi Mumbai airport project, promoted by the Maharashtra government-owned City & Industrial Development Corporation (Cidco) has already received cabinet approval recently. The greenfield airport project will be spread over 2,058 hectares. The third airport in Mumbai is supposed to come up at Thane.
Delhi's second international greenfield airport will come up at Jewar in Greater Noida. The civil aviation ministry has already received a techno-economic feasibility report on the Rs 3,505 crore (Rs 35.05 billion) airport project which will come up in 1,500 hectares of land.
The second airport at Chennai will come up in Sriperumbudur and Tiruvallur Taluka near Chennai. The greenfield airport will be set up on 4,820.66 acres of land.
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