Airport Authority Of India -Company Profile

Airports Authority of India (AAI) was constituted by an Act of Parliament and came into being on 1st April, 1995 by merging erstwhile National Airports Authority and International Airports Authority of India. The merger brought into existence a single Organization entrusted with the responsibility of creating, upgrading, maintaining and managing Civil Aviation infrastructure both on the ground and air space in the country. Despite many tragic occurrences like 9/11, Afghan war, Iraq war and SARS that struck the Civil Aviation sector the world over during the last few years and left it bleeding, AAI has persistently come up with good results, showing all around growth including increased revenue and higher level of profitability while building up the infrastructure. AAI has set for itself ambitious targets for upgrading the infrastructure during the 10th Five - Year Plan and is working steadily to achieve these targets. AAI manages 126 airports , which include 11 international airports, 89 domestic airports and 26 civil enclaves at Defence airfields. AAI provides air navigation services over 2.8 million square nautical miles of airspace. During the year 2002-03, AAI at various airports handled about 5 lakhs aircraft movements (4 lakhs domestic and 1 lakh international);40 million passengers (26 million domestic and 14 million international) and 9 lakh tones of cargo (3 lakh domestic and 6 lakh international). AAI Today AAI manages 126 airports, which include 11 international airports, 89 domestic airports and 26 civil enclaves at Defence airfields. AAI also provides Air Traffic Management Services over entire Indian Air Space and adjoining oceanic areas with ground installations at all airports and 25 other locations to ensure safety of aircraft operations. The airports at Ahmedabad, Amritsar, Bangalore, Goa, Guwahati, Hyderabad and CIAL (Pvt.), in addition to those at Mumbai, Delhi, Calcutta, Chennai and Thiruvananthapuram, are today International Airports open to operations even by Foreign International Airlines. Besides the International flights by National Flag Carriers operate from Calicut, Coimbatore, Tiruchirappalli, Varanasi, Jaipur and Gaya airports too. Tourist Charters now touch Agra, Coimbatore, Jaipur, Lucknow, Patna airports etc. AAI’s proposal to lease out, on global tender basis, the four most profitable jewels in its crown viz. Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai airports primarily aims to upgrade these to emulate the world standards. All major air-routes over Indian landmass are Radar covered (24 Radar installations at 11 locations) alongwith VOR/DVOR coverage (72 installations) co-located with Distance Measuring Equipment (71 installations), 39 runways provided with ILS installations with Night Landing Facilities at 36 airprots and Automatic Message Switching System at 15 airports. AAI’s successful implementation of Automatic Dependence Surveillance system, using indigenous technology, at Calcutta and Chennai Air Traffic Control Centres, gave India the distinction of being the first country to use this advanced technology in the South East Asian region enabling effective Air Traffic Control over oceanic areas using satellite mode of communication. Use of remote controlled VHF coverage, alongwith satellite communication links, has given added strength to our Air Traffic Management System. Linking of 80 locations by V-Sat installations during 2005 shall vastly enhance Air Traffic Management and in turn safety of aircraft operations besides enabling administrative and operational control over our extensive airport network. AAI’s endeavour in enhanced focus on ’customer’s expectations’ has evinced enthusiastic response to independent agency organised customer satisfaction surveys at 30 busy airports. These surveys have enabled us to undertake improvements on aspects recommended by the airport users. The receptacles for our ’Business reply letters’ at airports have gained popularity, these responses enable us to understand the changing aspirations of airport users. During the first year of the millennium, AAI endeavours to make its operations more transparent and the availability of instantaneous information to customers by deploying state-of-art Information Technology. The specific training focus on improving employee response and professional skill upgradation has been manifested. AAI’s four training establishments viz. Civil Aviation Training College - Allahabad, National Institute of Aviation Management and Research - Delhi and Fire Training Centres at Delhi and Kolkata are expected to be busier than ever before during 2001.