The Jewar airport project is being developed as an aviation hub to handle both passenger and cargo transport.
The authorities are optimistic that designating the airport as a transit hub will attract more air traffic to the facility, with increased footfall and revenue.
The construction phase of the Noida International Airport in Jewar is nearing completion. The facility, developed as the country’s largest airport, is likely to be declared open by September 2024.
As the development advances, the Noida International Airport Limited (NIAL) has further stated its plans to develop the airport into a transit hub for international airlines travelling to Asia-Pacific countries.
Transit hubs are facilities where international airlines stop for several hours before continuing the journey to another destination.
The authorities are optimistic that designating the airport as a transit hub will attract more air traffic to the facility, with increased footfall and revenue.
The agency has moved the proposal forward, for permissions, to the Ministry of Civil Aviation, as per NIAL sources.
According to the NIAL CEO, Arun Vir Singh, this development will attract more traffic, similar to the lines of Dubai, a transit hub for Emirates Airlines and Frankfurt, a transit hub for Lufthansa.
The transit hub plays a significant role in the growth of air traffic at a particular airport, as all international airlines choose their transit hub where flights halt for hours before take off to other countries.
The NIAL, the special purpose vehicle of the Uttar Pradesh government, is developing the airport project along with a Switzerland company, Zurich Airport International AG — which has also been roped in for this task.
With this transit hub, the key focus will be on airlines operating to Asia-Pacific countries such as Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore and Australia.
The airport management has already started discussions with Indian and foreign airlines and have received favourable interests for the possibilities of creating the transit hub.
This includes airline companies such as Indigo, Air Asia, Air India and Vistara. According to senior airport officials, the NIAL has asked the private concessionaire, Zurich AG, to carry forward the talks with the airlines.
The Jewar airport project is being developed as an aviation hub to handle both passenger and cargo transport.
The proposal for the transit hub has also come in addition to the earlier announcement of developing a multi-modal cargo hub at the facility.
At the recently held UP Global Investors Summit, the Tata Sons Chairman, N Chandrasekaran stated the Tata Group was looking at building an integrated multi-modal cargo hub (MMCH) through Air India SATS (AISATS).
AISATS is a leading organisation in the cargo and logistics sector.
The proposed MMCH will span across 80 acres of land. The development is intended to provide faster, convenient and intermodal connectivity with the manufacturing hubs in the country.
This cargo hub will also provide transportation facilities to support road to road, road to air, and air to road movements, spanning across several upcoming industrial clusters, creating a cargo gateway for Northern India.
The work on the upcoming international airport is progressing at a rapid pace, as the Zurich AG is progressing on its phase one development of the airport — which includes one runway, terminal building and other required infrastructure on 1,334 hectares of land.
During the Budget speech 2023, for the Uttar Pradesh state, the government announced that number of runways on Jewar Airport will be increased from two to five.
Meanwhile, land acquisition of 1,363.45 hectares for the second phase of the airport project is under process.