With the six non-metro airports and MIAL, Adani Group will become the largest operator of airports other than state-run AAI, which runs most of the airports. Adani Enterprises in its latest annual report unveiled its ambition to be the largest private airport developer in the country by developing world-class infrastructure at airports, both at airside and landside, enhancing the passenger experience, and creating entertainment destinations (airport village, hotels, and malls).

To achieve the aim, it also plans to increase domestic airline connectivity to new and under-served destinations, and also raise the number of flights to long-haul destinations in the west and also to south-east Asia. ”It was Le Corbusier who had said that a city made for speed is made for success.

”It is airports that enable this speed and we see airports as the nucleus around which we can catalyse real-estate and entertainment facilities, e-commerce and logistics capabilities, time-sensitive industrial ecosystems, aviation-linked business and put in place other innovative business concepts many of which will be enabled as a result of the mainstreaming of digitisation across every aspect of business and our daily lives,” Adani said. Stating that airports not just define the character of a city but also are a critical factor for the choice of a business location, tourism, urban economic growth and global economic integration, he said the economic value that the cities of the future create will be maximised around airports.1

The hub and spoke model is fundamental to enable a greater equalisation of increasing urban-rural divide as well as take advantage of the cost arbitrage that exists between the different locations to make India more competitive. ”This is critical for the creation of net new jobs,” he said. ”Given our deep infrastructure expertise, we are well-positioned to help make this happen.” Adani Airports won the mandate to modernise and operate six airports.

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• 1. ”As our nation progresses towards becoming the world’s third-largest economy, the Adani Group’s ability to serve this growth through a rapid build-out of airport infrastructure can be a significant enabler. ”We, therefore, see airports as a powerful engine to drive local economic development as well as act as a critical lever to help converge the tier 1 cities with the tier 2 and tier 3 cities in a hub and spoke model,” he said.