Bengaluru the most profitable airport last year, sector in losses
Bengaluru Airport – which operationalised its second terminal early this calendar year was the most profitable airport in India in the last financial year. The airport recorded a profit of 528.31 crore INR in Financial year 2022-23 (Apr 2022 to March 2023). The financial data for 139 airports in India – including both private and public airports was tabled in the Rajya Sabha – the upper house of Indian parliament on Dec 04, 2023 in response to a question by Sh. Sushil Kumar Modi, member of Parliament (MP).
Overall, the sector reported a loss of INR 1203 crore in the last financial year when air traffic was still below pre-COVID levels – indicating that the entire ecosystem has been under stress and not just the airlines.
Amongst the 138 airports for which profit and loss was shared, only 21 reported profits; 14 were without profit or loss and 103 reported losses.
Profitable airports
Amongst the 21 profitable airports are a mix of private and public airports. Kolkata follows Bengaluru with a profit of INR 482.3 crore. Kochi occupies the third spot with INR 267.17 crore. The list includes those which are not utilised for scheduled commercial services like Juhu (Profit of INR 13.31 crore) and non-operational ones like Asansol (Profit of INR 2 crore).
The others in the list starting from fourth position are Chennai, Calicut, Pune, Goa – Dabolim, Hyderabad, Tiruchirapalli, Deoghar, Srinagar, Juhu, Coimbatore, Bhubaneshwar, Chandigarh, Bagdogra, Vizag, Asansol, Leh, Kanpur and Darbhanga.
The Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) at Bengaluru is owned and operated by Bengaluru International Airport Limited (BIAL) – a public – private consortium venture, now majorly owned by Fairfax holdings and has seen multiple changes in its holding structure. It started with a majority ownership from the GVK group which also operated Mumbai Airport and are now out of the airports business.
Take numbers with a pinch of salt
The reported numbers are not at granular level and may contain one-off adjustments or contested dues. The large losses could also signify on-going capital expenditure which could be amortised over a period of time.
Most airports, if not all, are undergoing rapid expansion and construction activity while Bengaluru and Kolkata have just concluded their major expansion activity. Either profits or loss, the numbers may not be indicative of a long term pattern – unless studied.
The granular numbers for Delhi and Hyderabad airports are available, since they are owned by GMR Group under a separate company – GMR Airports Ltd, which is a listed entity.
No Profit, No loss
The 14 airports which have neither reported a profit or loss, sees just one being operational i.e. Aizawl. The rest have either not attracted any traffic or are under planning and construction stage.
These are Balurghat, Chakulia, Daparizo, Deesa, Dhalbhumgharh, Faizabad, Kamalpur, Khandwa, Khowai, Nadirgul, Panna, Satna, Shella, Aizawl. Considering the rate at which RCS-UDAN scheme has expanded, these may also see scheduled commercial service in the next few years. The scheme has been a success in terms of operationalising new airports but when it comes to commercialising those new routes – it is far from being called a success.
Loss Making airports
The most loss-making airport in the country in the last financial year was Ahmedabad, with a loss of INR 408.51 crore. This was followed by Delhi – the country’s largest airport with a loss of INR 284.86 crore. Lucknow was the third highest loss making airport with losses of INR 160.66 crore. Ahmedabad and Lucknow are part of Adani groups airport foray with the group winning the rights just pre-COVID and having had to take over the airports in the middle of the pandemic, impacting their financial calculations.
There are only nine airports with a loss of over INR 100 crore, while 55 airports have a loss of less than INR 10 crores.
Network Thoughts
Some of the smaller airports saw loss of service as Alliance Air ended its RCS-UDAN routes at the end of subsidy period and TruJet shut down in February 2022. This took few airports off the map leading to losses. Some, like Jalgaon will see connectivity soon while others like Salem have already seen connectivity return.
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