IIFCL gives wings to aviation sector; extends Rs 6,630 cr loans for development of airports: MD

To support the massive growth in the aviation sector, the India Infrastructure Finance Company Limited (IIFCL) has extended a credit of Rs 6,630 crore for the development of six major airports in the country and looks forward to increasing its exposure in the coming years, said its managing director P R Jaishankar.

Bullish on the growth of the aviation sector in the country, he said, the IIFCL has also given in-principle approval of Rs 638 crore for the development of a greenfield airport in Andhra Pradesh.

Over the past few years, India has seen massive growth in the airport sector, with increasing investments from both government and private sector, thanks to a rising proportion of middle-income households, infrastructure build-up at leading airports and supportive policy framework.

"With an aim to finance development of world class airport infrastructure in India, IIFCL has, till date, sanctioned Rs 6,630 crore to six major airports in India in Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Navi Mumbai, Noida (Jewar) and the newly developed Manohar International Airport in Goa," Jaishankar told PTI.

IIFCL is present in almost all major airports of the country, he said.

"These airports are of national importance and have been facilitating and improving connectivity across the nation. We are committed to supporting the government in its mission to improve connectivity for the masses and lower down the logistics cost to benefit the economy at large,” he said.

He further said, IIFCL will continue to extend its support to develop world class airport infrastructure in India and exploring opportunities in funding the greenfield airport projects, as well as Maintenance, Repairs and Overhaul (MRO) facilities under PPP mode by way of term loan, subscription to bonds, refinancing, or credit enhancement etc.

Highlighting the importance of the airport sector, Jaishankar said it holds the potential to provide a huge positive impact on the economy, with an economic multiplier of 3.1 and employment multiplier of 6.

To meet the growing demand for air travel in India, he said, it has become imperative to increase the capacity of airport infrastructure.

According to reports, investments worth over Rs 85,000 crore are in the pipeline for airport infrastructure in India during FY23 – FY27.

This includes ongoing capacity expansion at major private airports, investments by the Airports Authority of India (AAI) of Rs 25,000 crore for development of AAI-operated airports, around Rs 30,000 -35000 crore is 21 new greenfield airports across the country and about Rs 17,000 crore by the Adani Group towards development of six airports acquired from AAI.

India is the 7th largest civil aviation market in the world and is set to become the world's 3rd largest aviation market in terms of passengers by 2024. India plans to open 100 additional airports by 2024 and aims to increase the number of operational airports to 190-200 by FY'40.

Further, as per National Monetization Pipeline (NMP), he said, 25 airports including Bhubaneshwar, Varanasi, Trichy, Indore, Raipur, Calicut, Coimbatore, Nagpur, Patna, Madurai, Surat, Ranchi, Jodhpur, Vijayawada, Vadodara, Bhopal, Tirupati, Udaipur, Dehradun and Rajahmundry have been earmarked for leasing over the years 2022 to 2025 under Public Private Partnership (PPP).