Adani Group takes over control of Mumbai International Airport from GVK Group

Adani Airports, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Adani Enterprises Ltd, on Tuesday took over the management control of Mumbai International Airport Limited (MIAL) from the GVK Group. This was following a MIAL board meeting on Tuesday.

Adani Airport had earlier received approval from the Centre, the City and Industrial Development Corporation (CIDCO) of Maharashtra, and the Maharashtra government for taking over control of the airport.

Following the takeover of Mumbai International Airport, Adani Group has now become the owner of India's largest airport infrastructure company. The firm accounts for 25 per cent of all airport footfalls.

MIAL is India's second busiest airport by both passenger and cargo traffic. With the addition of MIAL, Adani Group will now also control 33 per cent of India's air cargo traffic, the company said.

"With India becoming to be the world's third-largest aviation market by 2024, the addition of the Mumbai International Airport to the Adani Group's existing portfolio of six airports, and Adani Airports thereafter the operationalization of the greenfield Navi Mumbai International Airport Limited (NMIAL) provides a transformational aviation platform allowing the Adani Group to interlink its B2B and B2C business as well as create several strategic adjacencies for the Group's other B2B businesses," the company said.

Adani Airports is expected to begin the construction of the Navi Mumbai International Airport next month and complete the financial closure in the next 90 days. This new international airport will be commissioned in 2024.

Gautam Adani, Chairman of the Adani Group, said, "Our larger objective is to reinvent airports as ecosystems that drive local economic development and act as the nuclei around which we can catalyse aviation-linked businesses. These include metropolitan developments that span entertainment facilities, ecommerce and logistics capabilities, aviation dependent industries, smart city developments, and other innovative business concepts".

"Our airport expansion strategy is intended to help converge our nation's Tier 1 cities with the Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities in a hub and spoke model," the business tycoon added.

Adani Airports expects its share of passenger traffic to grow from 80 million in FY20 to 100 million in FY22.

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