Adani Group takes over management of Mumbai International Airport

In a significant development in the Civil Aviation sector, Adani Group has formally taken over the management of Mumbai International Airport Ltd (MIAL), which runs the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (CSMIA).

The announcement was made by Adani Group Chairman Gautam Adani.

“We are delighted to take over management of the world-class Mumbai International Airport. We promise to make Mumbai proud. The Adani Group will build an airport ecosystem of the future for business, leisure, and entertainment. We will create thousands of new local jobs,” Adani tweeted.

The Adani Airport Holdings Ltd (AAHL), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Adani Enterprises Ltd, took over the management control of the MIAL from the GVK Group following the MIAL Board meeting on Tuesday.

This follows approvals received from the Government of India, the City and Industrial Development Corporation (CIDCO) of Maharashtra, and the Government of Maharashtra.

The MIAL is India’s second busiest airport by both passenger and cargo traffic.

With eight airports in its management and development portfolio, AAHL is now India's largest airport infrastructure company, accounting for 25 per cent airport footfalls. With the addition of MIAL, AAHL will now also control 33 per cent of India’s air cargo traffic.

With India set to become the world's third largest aviation market by 2024, the addition of the Mumbai International Airport to the Adani Group’s existing portfolio of six airports, and thereafter the operationalisation of the greenfield Navi Mumbai International Airport Ltd (NMIAL), provides a transformational aviation platform, allowing the Adani Group to interlink its B2B and B2C business as well as create several strategic adjacencies for the Adani Group’s other B2B businesses.

AAHL will begin the construction of the Navi Mumbai International Airport next month and complete the financial closure in the next 90 days. This new international airport will be commissioned in 2024.

Adani said, “Our larger objective is to reinvent airports as ecosystems that drive local economic development and act as the nuclei around which we can catalyse aviation-linked businesses. These include metropolitan developments that span entertainment facilities, ecommerce and logistics capabilities, aviation dependent industries, smart city developments, and other innovative business concepts.”

According to him, the airport expansion strategy is intended to help converge our nation’s Tier 1 cities with the Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities in a hub-and-spoke model.

“This is fundamental to enabling a greater equalisation of India’s urban-rural divide, as well as making international travel seamless and smooth. I believe that the economic value that cities create will be maximised around airports and the cities of tomorrow will be built with the airport as the focal point. This is a fundamental lever for modern world development and the rapid build-out of our airport infrastructure will create multiple employment structures that generate thousands of new job opportunities,” he said.