21 airports failing to take off

Maharashtra Airport Development Company Limited (MADCL) is finding it tough to maintain and run 21 of the 25 airports in the state. Only Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur and Aurangabad airports are operational on a daily basis while the rest have no ongoing operations. The state government has decided to move a global tender to lure airlines into starting services in smaller airports.
To deal with the matter, the general administration department last week held a meeting with private airline companies. However, the companies have clearly told the government that they were not interested in starting operations in cities apart from Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur and Aurangabad. Confirming the development, an official from the GAD said, “It is true that the companies were not willing to have services at smaller airports and, therefore, we have decided to float a tender, inviting more airlines to start services.”
There are various reasons why the smaller airports were not feasible for the airlines, the official said. The distances between some of the airports are very short like Nagpur and Gondia, which are not in use. The airports also have small runways that prevent big aeroplanes from landing. The airlines have no small aeroplanes to operate. “The airlines also said that it is not possible for them to buy the smaller aeroplanes. They are suffering losses and also there is no guarantee of getting adequate passengers in small cities,” the official said.
However, the government wants at least one plane to take off every day from the smaller airports. Therefore, it has decided to move a tender inviting more airlines to operate on smaller airports like Ratnagiri, Kolhapur, Latur, Osmanabad, Baramati, Solapur and Jalgaon. A company that is maintaining the Baramati, Latur, Osmanabad and Nanded airports has to bear losses of `250 crore last year due to their non functioning. This is also one of the reasons why private airlines are not coming forward to render services.

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