New Delhi: The Centre is in consultations with the Tamil Nadu government for a second airport in Chennai required by 2030-2035, Airports Authority of India (AAI) chairman Guruprasad Mohapatra said on Thursday. Civil Aviation secretary R. N. Choubey and AAI officials have held two meetings with the Tamil Nadu government in the past three months to discuss the matter.
The AAI also said in-principle approval for the site for the proposed Jewar airport in western UP — which is expected to serve as a second airport for Delhi — had been received. “Eighteen months back, we were handling 28 movements per hour (at Chennai) and after making improvements in our air navigation system, we hope to reach 40. With this, we expect we will be managing Chennai till 2030 or 2035. But a city like Chennai will definitely require a second airport thereafter,” Mr Mohapatra told reporters.
According to news agency reports, a study carried out by aviation think-tank Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation (CAPA) showed that Chennai handled 18.4 million passengers in 2016 and is expected to reach its maximum capacity of 23-26 by 2020, if traffic grows at an estimated rate of 12.5 per cent. Mr. Mohapatra said that a decision will be taken later on whether the second airport will be an airport developed on public private partnership model or whether it will be developed by the state-run AAI.
