Airports try to reduce costs

Airports are trying to reduce costs with many carriers cutting down on the number of flights. One of the most affected airports is Cochin International Airport Ltd or CIAL, which is the first private firm to have built an airport in India. This firm is also hard hit by recession and they are tying up with a Kerala-based Ayurveda firm so that they can grow medicinal plants instead of grass at their new international airport in Kochi. According to sources it requires a sum of Rs2.5 crore a year, for trimming the grass on about 100 acres of land.  

Hemant Mishra from the firm stated that this was a purely a cost-cutting measure. The airport director of CIAL, A.C.K. Nair, said that the proposed deal would not only save the cost of cutting grass, but it would also help to get a royalty of up to 10%, which would be a turnover by medicinal plants sale. He added that if they were blessed with rains, then the fertile land would be apt for growth of these plants. He also added that it would be difficult to get such vast land for medicinal plant cultivation anywhere else, and this was critical for ayurvedic treatment. Nair also said that an aviation conference had been organized by media business firm Terrappin Holdings. This would help CIAL to save money on re-carpeting its runways and thus ensure completion of the task within six months. This would ensure minimum disruptions to aircraft movement.

Nair assured the press that provisions had been made to handle smaller and medium-sized planes in various phases. This way the CIAL would minimize the loss of revenue without wasting time on runway resurfacing and not wasting savings.

According to statistics, the period between January and May, had resulted in airline passenger traffic falling by nearly 11% in the country, as compared to a year ago. This happened because of the slowing economy and carriers like Kingfisher Airlines Ltd and Jet Airways, which are also India’s largest private airlines, were flying fewer routes and plan to further cut capacity by 20%.

Until these airlines start flying at full strength again, all the airports would be finding ways to keep their bills low and get more revenue. The former chief executive of the GMR Group-promoted Rajiv Gandhi International Airport in Hyderabad, P.S Nair said that when the visibility was clear, they would switch off the lights on the runway. This way the airport can save around Rs48 lakh a year and this system has been introduced partially in the Delhi airport as well.

The Hyderabad airport saved Rs22 crore the previous year through such measures and by renegotiating service contracts. National Productivity Council was asked to provide training and consultancy for improving productivity. The Delhi and Hyderabad airports are trying to opt for videoconferencing to save travel costs. The basic concepts of all airports are to rationalize expenses and cut costs. They are also trying to defer some capital expenditure in the context of the downturn.