GMR led Hyderabad (Rajiv Gandhi) International Airport here is not only going for an expansion of the current terminal but is also in talks with the Unique Identification Authority of India (UDAI) for making use of the Aadhaar database to enhance passengers convenience, said CEO SGK Kishore here on Friday.
In an interaction after the launch of the ‘Express Security Check’ facility at the airport, he said the Hyderabad airport expansion plans have received environment clearance and the added space will be ready in the next three years to handle more number of passengers as in the last three years the airport has seen an 80% passenger growth. Last year, it handled 15.24 million passengers registering a 22% growth in passenger traffic and 23% growth in air traffic movement over 2015-16.
Expansion plans
“We have to be careful in our capacity expansion as growth is difficult to predict and building infrastructure is expensive, yet we have to be prepared. Since this is a greenfield airport, we can go for expansion of the existing facility and from 12 million capacity, we have handled 18 million passengers this year,” said Mr. Kishore. Second runway will happen once the passengers handling capacity reaches between 25 million to 30 million passengers.
RGIA is also looking into value enhancement to the passenger experiences by bringing latest global practices utilising artificial intelligence and “non-intrusive technology”. With the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) support, several pioneering changes were brought about in the last couple of years like being the first to roll out e-boarding, doing away with stamping of baggage tags and boarding cards.
CISF DG O.P. Singh said the Airports Council International (ACI) has rated the security of Indian airports better than that of several other airports across the globe in a survey conducted across 50 countries covering 200 airports worldwide.
First in the country
Hyderabad airport became one of the first in the country to introduce an ‘Express Check Facility’ enabling domestic passengers without check in luggage to directly go to the security gate with 10 ‘self-check in’ machines installed outside the domestic departures for the purpose.
Domestic passengers after printing their boarding pass from these check in kiosks can now enter express security check lane and head straight towards the boarding area. CEO SGK Kishore informed that over 40% of domestic passengers will benefit from the new facility during peak hours. About 16 foreign and three Indian carriers connect the city with 18 international destinations while 10 domestic carriers connect it with 33 domestic destinations.