Plans for the development of a second international airport at India's capital appear to be making headway following government approval of a feasibility study, which targets operations to commence by April 2023.

A techno-economic feasibility study report by Pricewaterhouse Coopers shows that the new airport will be located at Jewar in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh and 72km from the Delhi Indira Gandhi International airport. Construction is expected to commence by April 2019.

PWC says the Jewar airport would "decongest" Delhi airport, which is "soon expected to reach capacity".

Last year, Delhi airport handled 57.7 million passengers, a 10% growth from five-years ago. Although the airport has a plan to raise its capacity from the current 70 million to 109 million by 2034, PWC believes that capacity could be reached earlier due to strong growth in India's air traffic.

"Capacity constraint at Delhi airport along with the horizontal expansion of the city has necessitated requirement of a new airport," adds PWC.

The report adds that the new airport at Jewar will be able to capture the growing traffic, especially spillover traffic from the crowded Delhi airport around 2029/30.

Local media reports add that the government has approved the project and will use a public-private partnership model to develop the airport.

According to the masterplan, the project is estimated to cost Rs157 billion ($2.36 billion), to be spread out over four phases.

Capacity will also be added in phases, ranging from 12 million passengers per annum between 2023 to 2027, to 70 million passengers per annum between 2040 to 2050.

Hourly aircraft movements is initially expected at 24, before growing to 85 when a two-runway system becomes operational.

Separately, 40 hectares of land have been allocated for MRO services at the Jewar airport.

Source: Cirium Dashboard

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