Lnoppen - Corridor of Insights

3rd India Airport Expansion Summit

24–25 April 2014, Delhi , India

India is vastly expanding their airport infrastructure to ensure that their growing population can easily commute both domestically and abroad. The prime minister has recently come out and shared his plan for airport development until 2015. This includes building 2 new large international airports and 50 new smaller airports across India. This is in addition to the already
planned new airports of Navi Mumbai and expansions of Bangalore and dozens more. The 3rd Annual India Airport Expansion Summit featured prominent industry leaders and officials from across the globe providing informative and inspiring discussions pertaining to India’s current needs as well as sharing an insight at how to prepare today for tomorrow.
After the opening remarks of Mr. Kishu TECKCHANDANI, Designated Partner and CEO of India Aviation Consulting & Support and chairman of the first day, Mr. Anuj AGGARWAL, Executive Director KID (Key Infrastructure Development) kicked off the summit by giving a very detailed overview of AAIs plans for airport development and privatization projects. This AAI overview led way for a broader analysis of the airports in India, presented by Mr. Vishal BHADOLA, Associate Manager at CAPA India. He presented a forecast of traffic at Indian airports for the next 20 years, a financial snapshot and benchmarking as well as CAPA’s outlook of the industry.
The first morning session was concluded by Mr. Vipin ANAND, Regional Manager and Mr. Vikas GANDHI, General Manager at Assa Abloy, one of our gold sponsors. Assa Abloy’s presentation focused on door solutions and door opening technologies for the airport sector. The second morning session looked at financing and PPP models. In separate presentations, Mr. Manish R
SHARMA, Executive Director Capital Projects & Infrastructure at Price Waterhouse Coopers; Mr. Hemant SAHAI, Managing Partner at HSA Advocates and Mr. Panagiotis POLIGENIS, Associate Partner at Lufthansa Consulting shared insights and best practices about determining the right investment partner, how to secure financing, as well as the benefits and legal aspects of PPP.
After this, the floor was handed over to Mr. Bernard CREED, Vice President Finance at Dubai Duty Free. Mr. Creed showed the delegates how an airport can increase its non-aeronautical revenue and gave examples of how it is done at Dubai Duty Free. After his presentation, all delegates were invited to lunch.
The afternoon of the first day started off with a very detailed presentation of Mr. S V SATISH, General Manager ATM GAGAN of the Airports Authority of India who shared an overview of the Indian GAGAN project. He was followed by Ms. Mehnaz ANSARI, Country Representative India of USTDA. She explained how USTDA partnered with AAI in realizing the GAGAN project by supporting them financially and welcomed all other delegates, public and private, to contact them in case of other possible project partnerships. With GAGAN already touching on security in the air, Mr. Chris BARRATT, Managing Director Avsec Global, continued the session by looking at security within the airports and how to increase security, not only for the passengers but
for all customers involved.
The 3rd session of Thursday was concluded by Mr. Paul TOPPING, Director and Board Member of Flemingo International. He picked up where Mr. Creed had left off and gave a very vibrant speech on airport retailing and how to improve the retailing and non-aeronautical revenue in emerging revenue.
After a networking break, Ms. Surinder KUMAR, Director Northern Region at the IATA Agents Association of India gave an overview about the importance of airport hubs, how to create them and how to get a good airport – airline relationship. Her presentation was followed by a panel discussion which concluded the first conference day. During that panel discussion, Mr. Amber DUBEY gave the panelists – Mr. G. CHANDRAMOULI, Manager Director at Kannur International Airport, Ms. Surinder KUMAR, Director Northern Region at IAAI, Mr. Panagiotis POLIGENIS, Associate Partner at PWC and Mr. Robey LAL, Independent Aviation Consultant – the following question: What are the two wishes that they expect from the new Minister of Aviation after the elections? This created room for some discussions between the panel and the attending delegates before the first day ended and everybody was invited to the cocktail, sponsored by Flemingo International.
The second day was opened by Mr. Diraviam DEVARAJ, who recapitulated what was discussed on Thursday and opened the 2nd day of the conference. First speaker of day 2 was Mr. Kevin CLEARY, Senior Vice President Business Development at DAA International. The session focused on airports in transition and on solutions for airports in meeting market demand which can
go from airport private-sector transactions and concession holdings to increasing non-aeronautical revenues, infrastructural and operational efficiencies. Mr. CLEARY was followed by presentations from Mr. Keith HUI, Head of Aviation + Transportation Asia Pacific at HOK and Prof. Charanjit Singh Shah, Founding Principle at Creative Group. They discussed the architectural side of airport development, the different design trends and how they impact the customer as well as the importance of sustainability during the design & construction phase. Mr. Cornelious BERNARD, Chairman and Managing Director of Ibhar Technologies then shared the perks of having an airport performance management system on site at airports and impressed the delegates with the possibilities this creates for airports overall.
After a networking break, the conference continued with insights from Mr. Joeri AULMAN, Region Manager at NACO. Mr. Aulman gave an enlightening presentation about an island alternative for Navi Mumbai and the solutions this alternative creates compared to the previous proposal for Navi Mumbai. The conference continued with Mr. Shailesh RAJAN, National Manager Construction at Akzo Nobel. He explained the importance of coatings and gave examples of how this needs to be taken into account during design and construction phase. Leaving the design topics behind, the two following speakers, Mr. S L SHARMA, President of the Air Cargo Agents Association of India and Mr. Radhamaran PANICKER, Group CEO of Cargo Service Center, brought attention to the cargo side of the aviation industry. Mr. Sharma firstly gave a vibrant speech about the challenges for the cargo industry and the solutions ACAAI wants to see. Mr. Panicker, on the other hand, looked at a cargo hub for India and how logistics needs can be incorporated into the airport operations.
After lunch, we continued with the 3rd and final session of the day. Ms. Elisabeth FRIEDRICH, Senior Consultant International Business from Munich Airport shed some light on how to shift from airport to an airport’s city and gave many examples of how Munich Airport attracts more customers and creates more revenue by creating special events at the airport. The final presentation of the conference was given by Mr. G CHANDRAMOULI, Managing Director at Kannur International Airport who gave an overview of what was already realized and what still had to be done before finishing the airport. Finally, the day ended with a closing panel, moderated by Mr. Murthy KRISHNA, Project Manager Global Aviation Services at Louis Berger Group. Together with Mr. Indranil GUPTA, GM & Head Daily Operations at Bangalore International Airport and Mr. Joeri AULMAN, Region Manager at NACO, they looked at airport design and how to align this with operational efficiency. Attention was also given to the passenger’s needs and security at the airport. Mr. DEVARAJ, chairman of the second day, then concluded the summit and invited all participants to use the conference as a starting point for more discussions.

We want to extend our gratitude to all delegates for their active participation; their questions spoke to the heart of the main issues facing the aviation industry and their eagerness to build the industry is commendable.
Noppen would also like to express a special thanks to the sponsors of the 3rd India Airport Expansion Summit: Avsec Global, Assa Abloy, Flemingo, Cargo Service Center, Cosign, Akzo Nobel, Ibhar Technologies as well as our non-financial supporter Airports Authority of India for their contributions to the event. We have no doubt that your contribution helped in making this event a success.

3rd India Airport Expansion Summit

Search an event

By Date

Industry

Location