The Adani Airport Holdings Ltd (AAHL) has taken over the management control of Mumbai International Airport Limited (MIAL), India’s second busiest airport by both passenger and cargo traffic, from the GVK Group following a board meeting of MIAL held on Tuesday, as per a statement issued by its parent company Adani Enterprises Limited.

This new move is in line with approvals were received from the Government of India, the City and Industrial Development Corporation (CIDCO) of Maharashtra, and the Government of Maharashtra.

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MIAL is India’s second busiest airport both in terms of passenger and cargo traffic. With eight airports under 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 control 33 per cent of India’s air cargo traffic.

The AAHL will begin constructing Navi Mumbai International Airport next month and complete the financial closure in the next 90 days, the company said in the statement. The new international airport will be commissioned in 2024.

“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, e-commerce and logistics capabilities, aviation dependent industries, smart city developments, and other innovative business concepts,” said Gautam Adani, Chairman, Adani Group.

“Our airport expansion strategy is intended to help converge our nation’s Tier-I cities with Tier-II and Tier-III cities in a hub and spoke model. This is fundamental to enabling a greater equalisation of India’s urban-rural divide and making international travel seamless and smooth.

“I believe that the economic value that cities create will be maximised around the airports and the cities of tomorrow will be built with 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 will generate thousands of new job opportunities,” added Adani.

With the management control of Mumbai Airport, AAHL is poised to join the league of the world’s leading airport operators that cater to more than 100 million passengers and 200 million non-fliers in a year, presenting more than 300 million strong consumer platform.

At 12 per cent CAGR, AAHL expects its share of passenger traffic to grow from 80 million in fiscal 2020 to 100 million in fiscal 2022.

As the post-pandemic demand for air travel in India and the rest of the world is expected to surge, the International Air Transport Association aspires that the global passenger traffic will recover to 88 per cent of pre-Covid levels by 2022 and exceed the pre-Covid levels in 2023.