The Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) has granted rights to the GMR Group to operate the Hyderabad international airport for 30 more years, according to a statement issued on Wednesday, April 4. Till date, the GMR Group had the rights to operate the Hyderabad airport till March 22, 2038. The airport was inaugurated on March 23, 2008.

The GMR Group's statement said the extension granted by the MoCA is in terms of the concession agreement that was signed between the MoCA and the GMR Hyderabad International Airport Limited (GHIAL) on December 20, 2004.

GHIAL, a step-down subsidiary of GMR Infrastructure Limited (GIL), has received a letter of confirmation from the MoCA extending the term of the concession agreement for operating the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport in Hyderabad for a further period of 30 years - from March 23, 2038 up to March 22, 2068, it said.

"The initial capacity of the airport was 12 million passengers per annum (MPPA), which went up to 21 MPPA in 2019 (pre-Covid)," it said.

The airport, at present, is undergoing major expansion, post which the capacity will get enhanced to 34 MPPA. The airport has 150,000 tons of cargo handling capacity per annum, the statement said. 

The airport master plan has the flexibility to increase the ultimate capacity to over 100 MPPA in phases, it said.

Earlier on March 27, the number of passengers in a single day from Hyderabad International Airport touched around 53,000, which represents nearly 109% of pre-COVID daily average domestic traffic, the airport operator had revealed. The airport also registered the highest number of post-COVID domestic Air Traffic Movements (ATMs) of 374 on the same day. On March 28, the airport also achieved the highest-ever international passenger recovery of about 89% of pre-COVID daily average passenger traffic.