To enhance its revenue base, the upcoming Noida International Airport at Jewar in Greater Noida will also feature an aero city on the lines of Delhi and Hyderabad airports. Spread across 172 acres, the aero city will house hotels, restaurants, bars, shopping centres and similar other recreational facilities, Noida Airport’s chief executive officer, Christoph Schnellmann told Fe.
“We expect that the aero city, with hotels and few other facilities to become operational with the completion of the first phase, which is the end of 2024,” Schnellmann said. “The concessions for commercial spaces like restaurants, shops and hotels will be given out in the next nine months,” he added.
Last year, Roseate Hotels and Resorts had said that it will develop an airport hotel at Noida airport’s aero city with over 220 rooms.
The concept of an aero city is picking up for airport developers as the revenue earned from it goes to the operator and is not required to be shared with the joint venture partner, as is in the case of Delhi or Hyderabad airports, where the Airport Authority of India is the minority partner.
Aero cities are outside the airports premises, and the hotels and restaurants are different from the ones which are within the airport premises. For a private airport developer, there are three main line of revenues – aeronautical, non-aeronautical and aero city. The aeronautical revenues accrue from levy on per passenger arriving as well as departing plus on the landing and parking charges on aircraft. The non-aeronautical revenue accrues from shops, restaurants and liquor stores that are located inside the airport premises. Both these revenue streams are shared with the AAI. However, the aero city revenue totally belongs to the airport developer.
Globally, around 70% of revenues for airport operators accrue from non-aeronautical sources but this component is around 50-55% in India.
Currently, the Hyderabad aero city is the biggest, spread over 1,500 acres, followed by Delhi, which is built on 200 acres. Both these airports are operated by GMR Group, which also operates the Goa Airport and is planning an aero city there too. Fairfax-led Bangalore International Airport is also developing an aero city.
The upcoming Noida airport, which will be the second airport in the Delhi-National Capital Region, after completion of phase I, would have one runway and one terminal, and would be able to handle around 12 million passengers per year.
The airport development and operations concession was given to Zurich Airport International AG in 2019. The Switzerland-based company is implementing the project via its subsidiary Yamuna International Airport (YIAPL). It currently operates the Zurich Airport and eight airports in Latin America.