Odisha’s BPIA among 8 most profitable airports in India

Bhubaneswar: Amidst increasing number of air passengers following operations of two direct international flights from the Biju Patnaik International Airport (BPIA) run by the Airports Authority of India (AAI), the airport achieved success by securing a place in the list of profitable airports in the country.

The Bhubaneswar airport is one of the profit-making airports in India, while more than 90% airports run by the AAI made losses during 2016-17.

This was revealed by Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha recently in the Lok Sabha while giving a written reply about state-run loss-making airports.

The BPIA was among 8 most profitable airports out of total 102 airports in the country. The airports that made profit included Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport in Kolkata, BPIA in Bhubaneswar, Lokpriya Gopinath Bordoloi International Airport in Guwahati, Kushok Bakula Rimpochee Airport in Leh, Chaudhary Charan Singh International Airport in Lucknow, Mangaluru Airport in Mangalore, Jay Prakash Narayan International Airport in Patna and Tiruchirappalli International Airport in Tiruchirappalli.

While the AAI earned profits from the airports at Kolkata, Lucknow, Leh, Guwahati and Tiruchirappalli during previous years, Bhubaneswar, Patna and Mangalore airports found the place in the list of profitable airports for the first time.

Notably, Bhubaneswar airport made losses of Rs 15.30 crore in 2015-16. The Mangalore and Patna airports also ran into losses of Rs 8.41 crore and Rs 5.05 crore respectively during the same year.

It can be mentioned that apart from Bhubaneswar airport, the airports in Mangalore and Patna registered a significant improvement last year generating profits.

Delhi’s Safdarjung Airport incurred the maximum losses of over Rs 92 crore followed by Amritsar airport (Rs 50.52 crore) and Bhopal airport (Rs 49.53 crore) in 2016-17.

It is matter of pride for us that Bhubaneswar airport secured a place in the list of profitable airports in the country, while most of the busiest airports are incurring losses, said BPIA Director Suresh Chandra Hota.

Earlier, 26 flights were operated from the BPIA. With the increasing number of air passengers, the number of flights rose to 42 after Hota assumed the office as the Director at the BPIA.

Currently, 42 flights are operated from the BPIA and four more flights will be added taking the total number at 46 by March this year, Hota said.

In view of increasing number of passengers, the AAI is executing various plans including runway expansion, taxi-way, and construction of third terminal apart from constructing commercial complex in 60 acre land at investment of Rs 800 crore at the airport in Bhubaneswar.

After functional of the projects, the passengers will get world class facilities at BPIA, said Hota.