The Evolution and spurt in Greenfield Airports in India and their implications

Abstract

The construction and creation process of Airports can be classified as i. Greenfield Airports: These are the aviation facilities developed from scratch on vacant and/or developable land. ii. Brownfield Airports: These have Aviation infrastructure facilities available for `landing and taking off`` of aircraft; however, the facilities for passenger operations and/ or cargo handling are in- adequate to meet the current as well as future demands. These airports need substantial investments for improvements and modifications. Given the huge investments involved, the Government has been contemplating private participation in the aviation sector. Towards this, several policy changes were initiated. One of the important policy decisions has been the initiative to encourage Private participation in the construction, operation, and management of Greenfield Airports.The First Greenfield Airport in the true sense of the Public-Private-Participation (PPP) model was The Cochin International Airport which was operationalized during the year 1997. The impetus for this initiative came from the presence of a large number of immigrant populations in the tiny state of Kerala who spearheaded the movement for the establishment of a Greenfield Airport.