AAI’s belligerent marketing efforts

The Chairman and Managing Director of Airports Authority of India (AAI), R.K. Srivastava has outlined the strategy of AAI in not only improving airport infrastructure across the country but also monetising through non-aeronautical revenues.

SP’s ShowNews (SP’s): Mr. Srivastava, there is a lot of talk about diversification in AAI’s activities towards generation of non-traffic revenue thereby giving a new flip to commercial activities by marketing the products developed by AAI?

R.K. Srivastava: At the outset, you may please note that the Airports Authority of India, over a period of time, has established itself as a brand in the airport sector. AAI has a large pool of professionals, who have world class expertise in various fields of aviation ranging from airport planning, management of airports, air navigation, etc. AAI has recently modernised the facilities at more than 60 airports in India across metro and nonmetro cities at the cost of $1.60 billion. We have plans to undertake infrastructure projects worth $2.5 billion in the coming years.

With such diversified experience in aviation field, AAI can compete with the best in the world. As regards generation of non-traffic revenue we have set up a dedicated business development cell and marketing cell to give impetus to generate the activities giving rise to non-aeronautic revenue and increase the footfall at the airport. We intend to leverage the expertise to other international markets at a bigger scale not only for development of airport Infrastructure but also marketing our own expertise and technology.

SP’s: Would you like to further dwell upon the type of products and categories of products which AAI intends to market?

Srivastava: As a matter of fact, AAI is the sole service provider of Air Navigation Services in the country ensuring seamless transition of aircraft within and beyond Indian boundaries. As a part of ANS infrastructure augmentation, GAGAN (GPS Aided Geo Augmented Navigation System) jointly developed by AAI and ISRO was conceived and have been put in operation. India has become the fourthth nation in the world to possess such a technology.It is a proud moment for the country to be in the elite league.

Another feather in our cap is AFTM which is under implementation. The system will cover entire the Indian airspace and integrate various subsystems with a decision support capability to safely, efficiently, and predictably manage demand when it exceeds capacity in various phases of flight thus regulating flow of traffic to minimize delays and congestion. The stakeholders i.e. airlines will benefit enormously in form of improvement in overall turn-around time of aircraft resulting in considerable savings in fuel consumption and significant reduction in carbon emissions.

We have developed several products such as capturing the demand on the airlines entering and leaving the Indian airspace, several products relating to use of GAGAN and other ATM and CNS activities, several training modules in the field of ANS etc. in the region, we can market these products for use by our counterparts in the region as well as globally. We are in the process of engaging with the countries particularly in Africa or in East Asia where we can collaborate and provide these products.

We have an expertise in the field of Flight calibration. We have our own aircraft and technical team with necessary ratings from the respective bodies of civil aviation for undertaking such precision based calibration of CNS equipment in-house. We are engaging with the neighbouring countries for providing flight calibration to their ANSP’s.

We have also started engagement with several countries to undertake development of airports and airport infrastructure related projects. Recently, our teams visited countries such as Jordan, Tanzania and Nepal to explore the business potential.

AAI has also developed a comprehensive ‘e’billing solution capable of gathering of billing data, invoicing and collection of payments.We have tied up with IATA for realization mechanism through BSM & ICH and have plans to aggressively market the e-billing software. Strategic level discussions are on with DGCAs and other senior level officials of Indonesia and Cambodia for this product.

Besides this, AAI has vigorously participated in various road shows, exhibitions, seminars, conferences wherever AAI gets an opportunity to showcase our products. There are few breakthroughswhich are expected to mature soon. We will announce the same on maturity of the orders.