Pvt airport operators to spend Rs 42,000 cr on capacity expansion: Crisil

Private airport operators are expected to spend around Rs 42,000 crore on capacity expansion over the five years through fiscal 2026 as they are confident of air traffic growth in the long term, Crisil Ratings said on Tuesday.

The amount will be more than double the capital expenditure (capex) they incurred in the previous five financial years, it said.

According to Crisil, the confidence on capex stems from the strong long-term fundamentals and regulated tariff structure, which allows pass through of capex costs and thereby keeping the risks low.

Prior to the pandemic hitting the country in early 2020, private airports were bursting at their seams, operating at over 115 per cent of their design capacity.