# The HYD High-Flyer - feat. Pradeep Panicker (CEO, RGIA) - The Indian AvGeek

An episode of [The Indian #AvGeek](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1759764345), 4 May 2025, 48 min.

Audio: https://anchor.fm/s/f945ecd8/podcast/play/102133505/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2025-4-3%2Fc5607721-322c-7648-13d8-ffa31053a677.mp3

Pradeep Panicker (CEO of Hyderabad International Airport) joins episode 38 to discuss near and long-term plans for the airport, one of the most important in the country. We discuss the reasons for HYD’s success, future infrastructure plans, sensory passenger experience, how the airport attracts international airlines, identification of lateral demand, opening new domestic city pairs, regional aviation, cargo plans, MRO, connecting traffic at the airport, and even Groupe ADP. Vishal Mehra - @vishal1mehra

## Transcript

[0:06] Hello, hello my fellow geeks. Welcome to another brand new
[0:11] edition of the Indian app Geek. You are listening to Vishal
[0:16] Mehra. Today we are joined by a man who
[0:19] doesn't just talk about airport growth, he's literally building
[0:24] runways for the future. Meet Pradeep Panicker, the
[0:28] President and CEO of GMR Hyderabad International Airport,
[0:34] a leader who's seen more take offs and landings than your
[0:37] average flight tracker app. Under his watch, Hyderabad
[0:41] airport is racing towards a jaw-dropping 50 million
[0:45] passengers by 2031 and expanding cargo capacity faster than you
[0:51] can say Red Sea disruption. All right, welcome to the Indian
[0:56] app geek, Pradeep. Hi.
[0:58] Hi, Vishal. Great to meet you.
[1:01] How did you get into the business?
[1:02] Your background is in finance. What led you to joining the
[1:06] aviation industry? If you recollect Vishal, there
[1:11] was no private play in the airport sector.
[1:15] I think all the way up to perhaps the the first real
[1:19] public private partnership actually happened at Hyderabad
[1:21] airport and Bangalore airport. Prior to this, what was actually
[1:26] happening was the the public private partnership piece was
[1:32] happening in other industries, maybe Power Rd.
[1:36] These were the kind of areas in which that was happening.
[1:40] So I had the experience of actually working in the public
[1:42] private space on the road sector.
[1:46] And when the GMR group was looking to build a team to bid
[1:51] for the Delhi and Mumbai airport, they did reach out to
[1:55] me and I came in as the I was leading the bid for the Delhi
[2:00] and Bombay airport piece. That's in 2004 to 2006.
[2:04] So that's how I entered the aviation space.
[2:07] So you entered as an outside expert and then stayed with GMR?
[2:13] Yeah, yeah. So now I think this is my 21st
[2:15] year running, so it's been a long preneur.
[2:18] So now in a way I have become an expert trained within the GMR
[2:23] group. You were part of the Delhi
[2:25] airport team before arriving at Hyderabad.
[2:28] Did that experience help in any way?
[2:31] No, if you're talking of my current role, the the entire
[2:35] experience, what I've gained over the period within the GMR
[2:38] group actually did help me take this new role.
[2:43] But I mean, if you see, I have been in the aviation business as
[2:46] a total for the last 21 years now.
[2:49] So each day is a new experience and I do keep learning even now.
[2:53] So it's it's been a very exciting journey.
[2:56] Hyderabad has been doing phenomenally well.
[2:59] The passenger traffic is supposed to go up to 50 million
[3:02] by 2031 from 29 million in financial year 2025.
[3:09] You're growing almost at 15% year on year.
[3:13] What's your secret sauce to this incredible growth?
[3:17] I think one element which is contributing to growth in this
[3:23] market, India per SE is that we are currently a very market
[3:30] where the, you know, the per capita consumption for flights
[3:34] is very low, one of the lowest perhaps in in the world.
[3:38] So there is a huge latent demand.
[3:40] And actually the percentage of people flying in India maybe six
[3:44] to seven or eight maximum 8, that's the number which they
[3:47] keep talking about. Whereas globally this number is
[3:50] significantly higher. Even in China this number is
[3:53] higher. So what we are saying is there
[3:56] is a lot of headroom for growth which is very visible.
[4:00] Therefore, the growth is bound to happen.
[4:02] Having said that, Hyderabad has grown faster than its peers in
[4:07] this group primarily because Hyderabad has been also focusing
[4:11] on what you call the inorganic element of growth.
[4:14] The organic element of growth is naturally the the ability for
[4:19] the passengers to consume. I mean more and more people will
[4:22] come into the flying mode and also the increasing rate per
[4:25] capita income. But the inorganic growth
[4:29] primarily is the we are trying to get in transfer growth,
[4:33] transfer passenger growth which is originally not part of the, I
[4:36] mean you know the person who's travelling via Hyderabad, not
[4:41] into or out of Hyderabad. So via Hyderabad is when
[4:44] passengers say from Madurai wants to go to Chandigarh or
[4:48] wants to go to Srinagar, they may not have a direct flight
[4:52] from Madurai all the way to these destinations.
[4:54] So they naturally come they require via point and that's a
[4:58] transfer point and that Hyderabad has actually been
[5:01] fulfilling greatly primarily because of its single terminal
[5:04] facility and very good transfer facilities we have created.
[5:07] So this is how we have significantly increased our
[5:10] inorganic growth. So almost 27% of the Hyderabad
[5:16] traffic today is transfer passengers.
[5:18] So that is the growth. If you I mean just to recollect
[5:22] maybe say six or seven years back this number was around 8 to
[5:25] 9%. So there we have focused on the
[5:27] growth of non on transfer passenger and that is
[5:30] significantly enhance our total pie of the passengers which you
[5:34] are looking at. And how will the infrastructure
[5:37] be scaled up to meet future demands?
[5:42] So one thing is that we had created this airport.
[5:47] If you recollect, I mean this is a phase two of the project.
[5:52] The phase one of the project was at the time and we just before
[5:55] you know the Greenfield airport and it will got completed in
[5:59] 2008 when we commissioned the airport and at that juncture we
[6:03] had designed for a 12 million terminal capacity and the total
[6:07] area was 1,20,000 square meters. Today we have increased the
[6:12] total area to 3,80,000 square meters.
[6:15] We are also in the 1,20,000 square meters which is
[6:18] originally supposed to come handle 12 million passengers.
[6:21] We have handled close to 16,000,000 passengers.
[6:24] So we are able to sweat the asset by balancing the peaks and
[6:27] various other things and making some minor peaks here and there.
[6:31] So as we speak, this terminal was supposed to be originally
[6:34] designed for 34 million passenger per annum, but we have
[6:38] already tweaked bit of it and balance the peaks already
[6:42] looking at a 40 million capacity in this terminal.
[6:47] And as we speak, we are looking at getting more studies time to
[6:50] see can we get more out of this asset.
[6:53] So sweating of an asset is 1 very important element.
[6:56] How do we increase the capacity throughput without that because
[7:00] every time we create infrastructure, someone has to
[7:02] pay for it either I mean it's the passenger or the airline
[7:05] which is not the most optimal solution.
[7:08] So we always look at sweating the assets so that we can get
[7:10] more out of the asset which will help in retaining the charges at
[7:14] a reasonable level. So that is something which we
[7:17] work on and that is something which we will continue to do.
[7:19] Having said that, yes, you are right even I mean if you are
[7:23] looking at 2031, we are looking at 50 million.
[7:26] If this terminal does go even up to 50 million, we will require
[7:29] another terminal, another runway.
[7:30] So there is a need for us to already look at another phase of
[7:35] expansion. We are looking at our northern
[7:37] precinct right now out of the 5500 acres of land we have, we
[7:42] have only developed the southern precinct which is close to about
[7:46] 2500 odd acres. Another 2500 odd acres is there
[7:50] in the northern precinct which is also available for expansion.
[7:55] We are in the process of appointing a master planning
[7:58] consultant to plan out the entire, I mean saturation
[8:02] capacity of the airport as and when that is done.
[8:05] And we most likely will start construction in FI 2728 for the
[8:11] next phase of construction so that it is ready by 3031 to
[8:15] accommodate the additional traffic which is likely to come
[8:18] in. That actually brings me to
[8:20] something I keep hearing about. Maybe you can share some more
[8:25] details about the sensory experience model implemented at
[8:30] the Hyderabad airport and how has passenger feedback shaped an
[8:36] initiative like this? Yeah.
[8:39] So we follow what's called the five senses model that, you
[8:42] know, sight, smell, paste, touch and the sound.
[8:48] So the basically what we look at is, you know, we try to give
[8:53] each of these senses a very calming impact.
[8:57] So one other thing which the we incorporated in our terminal is
[9:01] the welcome fragrance. As you enter the terminal, you
[9:05] get relaxed by getting the very soothing, I mean essence which
[9:12] is actually floating out in the air, which is, which will tend
[9:16] to relax you. That's something which we work
[9:18] on. 2nd is we have a curated music, instrumental music which
[9:21] is goes all the way around where we look at and based on the time
[9:27] of the day the music is different and it is instrumental
[9:30] music was to be non intrusive. That's what we are trying to
[9:33] look at and that helps to again relax the passenger as we go
[9:36] along. The one other thing with respect
[9:39] to touch which we look at is basically we have gotten therapy
[9:43] dogs and these also tend to give a sense of I mean, you know, you
[9:49] there are people who may be interested in touching these
[9:54] therapy docs. They tend to relax you a lot
[9:56] also. And we have also been looking
[10:01] at, you know, creating art installations as and where it's
[10:05] possible. We are in slowly increasing
[10:07] that. This gives the visual impact and
[10:10] also during the festive season we tend to bring in a lot of
[10:15] decor which is very relevant with the, you know, the festival
[10:20] which we are celebrating. So in addition to this, we also
[10:24] started what's called the yoga room, which is basically more
[10:27] for the, you know, the people who are interested in doing yoga
[10:30] and these are things which we have incorporated as different,
[10:33] different touch points. We also have a children's play
[10:36] area which we have just created. So these are some aspects which
[10:40] we bring in primarily to, you know, tend to give a very
[10:46] relaxed environment for the passenger when they're
[10:48] travelling was travelling can be stressful and we want to make it
[10:52] as comfortable as possible. And there are, of course, our
[10:56] airport has all the years been written around the best in terms
[11:00] of the the comfort the employees given our employees.
[11:05] I have even recently we just got the sky tracks.
[11:07] I work for South Asia and India as the most friendly staff.
[11:11] So that's something which we again work on to give that
[11:14] experience to the traveler. So these are elements which we
[11:18] have incorporated. There is of course other
[11:21] technologies which are also there.
[11:23] Digiatra, you are aware of it is being incorporated in various
[11:27] airports and we were on The Pioneers in this particular
[11:30] space. Again, the immigration, the
[11:34] government does actually come through what's called the FT,
[11:37] you know the known passenger program that also we have
[11:41] recently inaugurated 4 access gates both in international and
[11:46] sorry in departure and arrival. And we have one of, we have
[11:50] close to 100 passengers who are using this facility in a daily
[11:54] basis. Then we do also have a smart
[12:00] trolleys, which we were, you know, I think you would have
[12:03] perhaps seen it had gone viral when Mahindra had tweeted on
[12:08] this. Primarily these were trolleys
[12:10] which will guide you to the gate if you do.
[12:12] I mean, scan your boarding pass and it gives you a lot of
[12:17] information on the way. Where are the toilets?
[12:20] Where is the spa? Where is the, I mean yoga room?
[12:23] Where is the other facility that you want to go to?
[12:26] So that's something which we did as a POC.
[12:28] We are now rolling it out in a bigger way shortly.
[12:31] And there are other things like buggies, express security lanes
[12:36] and constantly we keep listening to the passengers.
[12:39] So that's something which we do. We have what's called an airport
[12:42] predictive operation Control Center, which man's and keeps
[12:46] the years to the ground with respect to what is the passenger
[12:49] talking about, What is the people talking about.
[12:51] Generally if there are tweets and all, we tend to respond
[12:54] within. I mean the cap which we have put
[12:57] on the team is not more than 10 minutes, but our average
[12:59] response time is around 2 minutes.
[13:01] So that's something which we keep looking at so that we are
[13:03] not only, I mean we also are sensing what's happening so that
[13:08] we are on top of the game. On that, not just for airports
[13:13] but also for airlines and other players in the ecosystem, the
[13:18] younger traveller is of immense interest, right?
[13:22] The usage behaviour also differs from other cohorts.
[13:26] How are you as an airport adapting yourself to the younger
[13:31] consumer? So one very critical element or
[13:35] the important element for the young traveller is the, you
[13:37] know, the food and the variety and the options of food which is
[13:40] available. That's something which we have
[13:42] developed and we have curated a menu which caters to all kind of
[13:46] people. I mean we have from the typical
[13:51] millets to you know the, I mean different, different kind of
[13:57] other things like vegan, so many other things which you have
[14:00] developed, which perhaps is one thing which we look at catering
[14:03] to the separate requirement of the youngsters, even our retail
[14:07] outlets to offer different products which are actually more
[14:10] in tune with the young crowd. So this is something which we do
[14:14] on the retail and the commercial side.
[14:16] Then we have, I mean for the very, very young crowd.
[14:20] We also look at you know, the play areas for them, for the
[14:22] kids of the young parents also. That's something which we are
[14:26] working on. We are also having for example
[14:31] in the, I mean the lounges and all, we have some other spaces
[14:34] we have created where it is possible for families also to
[14:38] use rooms. Family rooms are also available.
[14:40] So these are some things which we have worked on so that we
[14:43] constantly take care of what is in the mind with the youngsters.
[14:48] And of course the they are, as I told you earlier, the, you know,
[14:54] the troll, the the, the baggage trolley, these are all
[14:56] electronic things which are there.
[14:57] We are bringing in electronic to the fore or the technology to
[15:01] the fore which will tend to even app.
[15:04] They talked about the why app and all which you develop is
[15:07] primarily aimed at the younger generation who are actually more
[15:10] tech savvy and are perhaps more demanding with respect to
[15:14] variety and options of food, which is and the, you know, the
[15:17] retail outlet offerings. You were just mentioning how
[15:22] Hyderabad airport had pioneered Digiatra.
[15:25] Do you see if that can be expanded to international
[15:29] passengers? Also, what kind of challenges do
[15:32] you foresee in rolling it out? So Digiatra primarily is
[15:38] currently being only done for the domestic passengers and
[15:42] today 24 airports within India have implemented Digiatra.
[15:45] So it's a seamless one stop solution which is further being
[15:49] expanded by the Government of India.
[15:50] So it becomes so much more easier once you are registered
[15:54] for you know people to travel from various airports.
[15:57] Now having said that, on the international side, it is not
[16:00] that easy because first and foremost the requirement is that
[16:06] when you are actually traveling international, you need to 1st
[16:09] report to the check in counter of the airline because you can't
[16:14] do an online check in and the airline would like to see your
[16:18] visa, verify your visa before they actually give you the
[16:22] boarding pass. So that's something which they
[16:24] do because they are responsible to ensure that people, I mean
[16:28] there have been instances that people have actually tried to
[16:30] sneak into a country without the proper travel documents.
[16:33] So that's really it is a cumbersome process and it's a
[16:36] significant penalties are imposed on airlines.
[16:38] So therefore airlines are not very comfortable as we speak on
[16:41] this. Having said that, there is a
[16:44] move among the international airline community where visas
[16:50] can be also checked prior to the passenger arriving to the
[16:53] terminal. As and when that does happen, it
[16:56] is possible that even the DGR Dr. will gradually get spread to
[16:59] the international. It's a matter of that particular
[17:02] piece falling in place and with the Trusted Traveller programme
[17:07] of immigration, there could be a day when a passenger is
[17:10] completely walking paperless through the entire terminal all
[17:14] the way up to the gate. It is possible, but it may take
[17:17] some time. Pradeep, what are the key
[17:20] factors that are considered by you, your team, to identify new
[17:25] international routes and how do you collaborate with airlines to
[17:29] make them viable? So before any route is actually
[17:34] looked at, we need to see is there a demand for that and the
[17:39] demand assessment for any particular route comes from
[17:42] data. The data is there, there are
[17:44] various software packages or you know packages like IATA Airport,
[17:50] IAS is there which gives U.S. data with respect to is there a
[17:53] demand for a particular route even before it is started.
[17:57] So we do look at that and that data helps us to identify which
[18:01] are the routes which we require to trace and you know follow up.
[18:04] So that's how we do the bit of working.
[18:07] Having said that, they have an instances where we have been
[18:10] able to visualize basically a latent demand which is not
[18:15] visible in the paper and Kajol Airlines and they have started
[18:21] for example a little Sri Lankan. When we looked at Sri Lankan,
[18:24] Sri Lanka was not a point of call and they were hardly asked
[18:27] for the data, 13 or 14 passengers going in a day into
[18:30] Sri Lanka. So when we approached Sri Lankan
[18:33] airline, this is almost 10 years back, they first said that you
[18:37] don't have passengers coming into Sri Lanka and it will not
[18:40] make sense for us to put the flight.
[18:42] And at that during those times where Indian carriers were
[18:46] actually not that gung ho into international and others were
[18:49] not big, Indigo was not also so much into international.
[18:53] So we finally managed to convince Sri Lanka to start with
[19:00] 3D narrow body flights a week and Hyderabad being Hyderabad,
[19:06] we all of a sudden saw a growing interest into Sri Lanka to
[19:10] travel into Sri Lanka for tourism.
[19:12] And within a matter of I think one month or so, they had to
[19:15] make it 5 flights a week because all their flights were going
[19:18] full. And then they made it 7 flights
[19:21] a week, all everyday. They had flights in just about 3
[19:24] months time and even that was not enough.
[19:26] Then they had to increase the size of the aircraft.
[19:29] They were brought in wide body on particular dates to fill up
[19:31] and take it. So that is the kind of demand a
[19:34] city, a young city, young population can create if a new
[19:38] route is offered. So that's something which we do
[19:40] talk to airlines and we do demonstrate this is what
[19:42] happened. This is all happened pre COVID
[19:44] and interestingly Sri Lankan was thinking that many of the
[19:48] passengers were actually going to travel to Colombo would be
[19:51] transit passengers, a transfer of passengers who may want to go
[19:55] to some other nations in either Southeast Asia or into
[19:57] Australia. But interestingly, 80% of
[20:00] passengers actually were going for tourism into Sri Lanka.
[20:03] So this is something which changed the entire way.
[20:08] The perspective on Hyderabad and the population and the demand
[20:13] which is coming out. So this is a case which we
[20:17] present to various airlines and then we do meet them and
[20:20] explain. So if that country which we are
[20:23] looking at does have a tourist potential, for example, now we
[20:26] recently launched flights to Phuket, we have also launched
[20:30] flights to Vietnam. So there are flights which are
[20:33] likely to happen in this particular aspect.
[20:35] Similarly, we have also, I mean just likely to start flights to
[20:39] Ethiopia, I mean in June, coming June and then possibly KLM is
[20:44] also going to fly in possibly September.
[20:46] So these are all routes which have materialized over a period
[20:50] of time given the demand which we were able to demonstrate and
[20:54] Oregon, the latent demand. So in the case of Ethiopia, of
[20:56] course there are a lot of student traffic who comes into
[20:59] Hyderabad also medical tourism. So there are things which have
[21:02] actually again triggered. Similarly KLM is looking at
[21:05] because there is a growing demand for US and into Europe.
[21:08] So that naturally that is something which they are looking
[21:10] at. So there is for each particular
[21:12] airline we approach, there is a different pitch which we make
[21:15] based on what is the demand and the requirement.
[21:18] So that's roughly how we go about doing our airline
[21:21] marketing and piece of it. That's super fascinating.
[21:27] You mentioned how initially the airline wasn't seeing much
[21:30] demand, but from an airport point of view, you saw latent
[21:34] demand, right? How did you figure that out?
[21:38] What were the indicators that made you think, wow, you know,
[21:41] wait a minute, there's definitely an opportunity for
[21:45] Sri Lankan there? So what happens is we do look at
[21:51] say any, any particular route is there the tourist, you know,
[21:55] outbound tourist routes out of Hyderabad have done well and
[21:59] there's a demand. So that's something which we
[22:01] figured out and mainly youngsters who travel and you
[22:06] know, it's a family vacation out of Hyderabad.
[22:08] So that's something which we found out into Thailand.
[22:10] We were seeing a lot of people going and the other holiday
[22:13] destination they're doing pretty well.
[22:15] So from that we figured out that you know, this is a point which
[22:19] we could market and therefore we keep looking at bringing in
[22:26] that. Is the process similar for
[22:30] domestic routes also for new city pairs to be opened?
[22:35] Quite similar thing happened with Varanasi.
[22:38] When we started the flight for Varanasi, Spicejet was not too
[22:41] keen to start the flight and we had to again cajole them and
[22:47] this agreed to put in a flight for one flight today initially
[22:52] and the numbers just went through the roof and the yield
[22:55] went up very high and Indigo saw the opportunity.
[22:59] Indigo's decided to put in a flight.
[23:01] We are a bit apprehensive with two flights coming in in quick
[23:04] succession, maybe both the flights will tend to become bad.
[23:07] But Indigo went from strength to strength further increased
[23:10] frequency two to three. I think at that time Spice it
[23:13] continue at that junction. I am talking this is quite some
[23:16] time back. So very clearly many a times the
[23:20] flight issue put sense of simulated demand which perhaps
[23:24] is not visible. So that is something which we
[23:26] keep doing and the way we look at it, we also know, I know the
[23:31] passengers from where they are coming.
[23:33] For example, one focus point now which we are looking at is
[23:36] Northeast. A lot of the people working in
[23:38] Hyderabad are coming from either in the hospitality or in the
[23:41] medical, medical field is coming from Northeast.
[23:44] So that is something which we are looking at again increasing
[23:47] our connectivity to. Otherwise we are connected
[23:49] significantly almost to many destinations, almost 74
[23:53] destinations we have already connected and we would be
[23:57] looking at unconnected destinations and seeing is there
[24:00] a potential. So that is how we look at for
[24:02] the domestic piece. You were talking about cajoling
[24:07] your airline partners. Is it just traffic data or
[24:12] something else also that comes into play?
[24:15] No, no, when we pick a pitch, we make a pitch for the entire
[24:19] maybe we have to talk about the state.
[24:21] We have to talk about the state of economy of the state and you
[24:26] know they were tourist attractions and what are the
[24:28] things which is there, how does it happen, what are industries
[24:31] coming and all those kind of thing.
[24:32] We do need to talk about destination.
[24:35] Then supposing if you're talking about international flights
[24:38] coming in, how Hyderabad is the centre of India, how the better
[24:41] connectivity, how can you provide connectivity to other
[24:44] destinations from India? So these are kind of things
[24:46] which we have to talk about. We do talk about various aspects
[24:49] about our features, I mean in terms of a single terminal and
[24:53] how the hubbing can happen here fast.
[24:55] So there are many things we pitch when we talk about and
[24:58] those things finally convince the airline that there is a
[25:02] potential for them to fly into Hyderabad.
[25:05] So that's how it works out. Got it.
[25:08] Viajet has just started operations from your airport.
[25:12] We were talking about Ethiopian and KLM as well starting in
[25:16] September. Which other International
[25:19] Airlines are you talking to as far as your airport marketing
[25:23] team is concerned? As we speak, these are the ones
[25:27] which are there immediately. We are also, I mean
[25:30] significantly looking at, you know, our own Indian carriers to
[25:33] increase their connectivity as they are more and more and more
[25:36] aircrafts are coming in. And we do talk to almost all the
[25:41] airlines. I mean the routes conference we
[25:43] go, we go with a list of 25 or 30 different airlines and we try
[25:47] to meet them up and talk to each one of them on the potential.
[25:51] It is sometimes some of the routes may take three years,
[25:55] four years to I mean become reality.
[26:00] So that is how it takes time. It is not an easy exercise
[26:03] because even if an airline is convinced that there is a
[26:05] demand, it really has to prioritize and get the aircraft.
[26:09] Whenever that new aircraft is allocated to or comes into their
[26:12] fleet is when they start looking at it.
[26:14] So there are a lot of pros and cons before behind the picture.
[26:17] So there are many airlines we are looking at.
[26:21] We, we have, there are destinations which have
[26:23] significant passengers. For example, us, US is a
[26:26] destination, we have almost 1.2 million passengers who in a year
[26:29] which is going just to give you a big sense of what it means,
[26:33] 1.2 million passengers. It is like 4 wide body which is
[26:36] about 303 hundred 2030 peaceful people travelling and one flight
[26:40] can fly out of Hyderabad into US and come from US into Hyderabad.
[26:45] That is the total potential of traffic out of Hyderabad.
[26:48] But we don't have a direct flight primarily. 2 reasons for
[26:51] that. One is the Indian carriers do
[26:53] not have the capacity to, I mean fly into USA except for Air
[26:59] India. But Air India does not have
[27:00] enough equipment. So the number of equipments are
[27:02] limited. So they are focusing on their
[27:06] half stations today and Indigos just acquiring wide body
[27:10] aircraft. So they do not have wide body
[27:12] aircraft to that extent today. Having said that, the US
[27:16] carriers are unable to connect into Hyderabad primarily because
[27:19] of the Ukraine, Russia conflict which is ongoing today.
[27:22] Therefore, these flights which have to I mean come from USDA
[27:27] where all polar flights and the polar route is now blocked for
[27:30] them. If they have to wire the
[27:32] Atlantic or the Pacific, they will be payload penalties which
[27:35] could result in hundred seats in flying, flying vacant which will
[27:39] not be a viable flight. So therefore US is supplied
[27:43] which may happen gradually over a period of time.
[27:45] Similarly, we have other destinations also where there is
[27:48] enough data, at least a significant number of passengers
[27:52] who are actually from this region, that is the Telangana,
[27:54] Andhra region who have you know settled down in US and similar
[27:58] other countries. So we have data and that would
[28:00] be something which will materialize over the period.
[28:04] I was speaking to Sathaki from Bangalore sometime back on the
[28:08] podcast and he was echoing this especially for US based airlines
[28:14] unable to serve Bangalore currently due to closure of
[28:18] Russian airspace. Hopefully it will lead to more
[28:22] expansion in future. From a Hyderabad point of view,
[28:25] I'm sure you would want some of those XLRS also coming in.
[28:31] You know when those come in for Indigo to be based out of
[28:33] Hyderabad and serve some untapped markets.
[28:37] Sure, sure. You were talking about how you
[28:40] have to present tourism data to your prospective airline
[28:43] partners. How do you work with tourism
[28:46] boards or trade associations or government entities to promote
[28:51] Hyderabad as a destination for new routes?
[28:53] Is there an active role that an airport is supposed to play in
[28:57] all of this? So actually if you've note, the
[29:04] Telangana region per SE has not been a major tourist attractor
[29:09] on the perspective of, you know, tourism coming into India,
[29:13] primarily the Golden Triangle and you know, Goa, Kerala,
[29:17] that's these are the regions which have attracted other
[29:20] states are now trying to jump onto the bandwagon.
[29:22] It will take some time before they do really start attracting
[29:27] tourists. Having said that, I mean, I
[29:30] mean, I'm a big fan of the kind of cultural heritage we have in
[29:34] our country. You any part of India has much
[29:38] more to offer than many of the foreign destinations which are
[29:40] really hyped. So that's something it's a
[29:42] matter of not being able to really create that market
[29:46] marketing pitch for. You know, I mean, I'm explaining
[29:49] it. Perhaps one very important thing
[29:51] is that, you know, when people travel, they require basic
[29:54] things like, you know, good accommodation, toilets
[29:56] everywhere, safety. These are things which are, you
[30:00] know, slowly getting inculcated and built and you know, that
[30:04] culture has to be brought in. So having said that, even the
[30:07] government of Telangana is looking at promoting tourism in
[30:10] a big way and we do work closely with the tourism department to
[30:14] see how do we also evolve and develop products.
[30:17] They have identified various destinations in the state which
[30:20] are interesting and we do try to give in what our inputs also on
[30:28] those policies and all how can it be, You know, it can
[30:32] materialise in such a way that we also do attract more people.
[30:36] Recently at the Skift conference in Delhi, there was a big
[30:40] discussion around how limited tourist arrivals are A cause of
[30:44] concern for the industry and how our inbound tourism marketing
[30:48] needs to get better. I felt you were bang on when you
[30:53] just spoke about how there are so many phenomenal places to see
[30:58] in our country itself. I remember we used to have a
[31:02] great tourism campaign in credible India, which the
[31:05] government for some reason has decided to put on a back burner.
[31:11] Is there a role for a major private player like yourself to
[31:15] go to the tourism ministry or even to Mocha and put forward a
[31:21] proposal for upping the ante? As far as marketing is
[31:25] concerned, we are still below pre pandemic levels.
[31:29] I think as far as inbound is concerned, more tourists would
[31:34] make everybody in the ecosystem happier, whether it is the
[31:37] airlines or hotels or airports. You're right, but I think, you
[31:44] know, while we can go and make a pitch, I think it's an area
[31:55] which will require persuasion. Perhaps we can only persuade, we
[31:59] can only make a beyond that being this is a national thing
[32:02] which they have to work on. In a competitive aviation
[32:06] market, how does Hyderabad airport differentiate itself
[32:10] from other Indian airports to position itself as an attractive
[32:15] hub for new airline partnerships?
[32:19] There are two type of traffic, one is the the organic one which
[32:24] is normal, which is very close to the you know ond traffic
[32:28] which is primarily the traffic which is generated from the
[32:31] region. So that traffic, I mean
[32:35] Hyderabad being perhaps the only airport in Telangana and one of
[32:38] the major airports in this area, automatically that traffic would
[32:43] get through Hyderabad. And the transfer traffic which
[32:51] is I just mentioned that we are doing pretty well actually is
[32:56] something which is we have to work on ensuring that we are
[33:00] able to work with the airline to ensure that our connectivity is
[33:04] better, that we are able to give a very good connect time.
[33:10] So what we do is for the domestic to domestic transfer,
[33:13] we do try to connect the minimum connect time of 45 minutes.
[33:17] Whereas with respect to the D to I and I to D also we try to give
[33:23] good times. D to I we try to do within 75
[33:25] minutes and I to D that's international to domestic in 90
[33:29] minutes and eye to eye we try to complete within 16 minutes.
[33:32] So these are the four different aspects of transfer we do where
[33:35] the passenger along with the baggage is ensured to connect.
[33:38] So this is something which we have evolved and developed and
[33:41] today 27% transfer traffic, Hyderabad is one of the highest
[33:45] perhaps I think the only other station which has 27% transfer
[33:48] passenger is today in Delhi. So that's a that's a number
[33:52] which we are quite happy about and the infrastructure we have
[33:57] created is such that the airlines are much more happier
[34:00] to to connect over Hyderabad. So that's something which we
[34:02] will continue to provide. So that's a competitive
[34:04] advantage we have. Having said that, the other
[34:07] competitive advantage Hyderabad has is that it is almost located
[34:10] in the center of India. So it is able to you know,
[34:15] connecting within two destinations and with various
[34:18] destinations is possible. The least you know the
[34:22] disruption is least and the travel is better.
[34:25] The other thing is which we have advantage is that we are in all
[34:27] weather station literally we have good visibility through the
[34:31] year I mean and weather is good, it's very conducive for flying.
[34:36] So these are elements which we bring in which is definitely a
[34:39] very good piece of the competitive advantage we put
[34:43] here. And last but not the least, we
[34:46] have a significant headroom for growth.
[34:49] Today we are only at 29 million and we can go all the way up to
[34:51] 100 + 1,000,000. So for an airline which is
[34:55] planning to set up a hub here, they can force definitely see a
[34:59] long term future with us. So these are elements which we
[35:01] went to the table. Bengaluru recently started a few
[35:06] long haul narrow body routes. Do you see similar potential for
[35:11] the Hyderabad market also? Pradeep.
[35:15] So as and more, more and more equipments come into India, you
[35:18] know which you're talking about the XLR and all that 321, these
[35:23] will get more and more flights and Hyderabad also will get its
[35:27] share of the new flights. You have a MRO facility at the
[35:32] airport. How's that doing?
[35:34] Any plans to expand it further? Yeah, it is doing exceptionally
[35:38] well. In fact, it has been a very
[35:41] interesting story in that particular MRO.
[35:44] When we started the MRO, we were one of the first to have started
[35:48] basically a basement and in station of our airframe MRO.
[35:53] And even our Indian carriers were very hesitant to come to us
[35:57] at that time because you know it is like taking your new Bugatti
[36:03] to a show Indian showroom. This is going to your authorized
[36:06] vendor. So it took some time for them to
[36:09] realize that we do a great job and over the period we have been
[36:15] almost 100% full. So interestingly last year 80%
[36:19] of our business was actually international.
[36:23] It is not domestic. So we have actually now an MRO
[36:27] for the world. We do significant amount of
[36:30] maintenance operations for International Airlines and we
[36:33] have close to 30 different certifications from I mean apart
[36:39] from the DGCA one itself, we have from FAA, from US we have
[36:45] YASA from the Europe and various other countries close to 27 or
[36:49] other countries which have given registration.
[36:51] So we do service various different, different airlines
[36:55] from different, different geographies.
[36:57] I was being a narrow body MRO. We take care of the 737320 fleet
[37:02] and the ATR and Q 400. So that's something we keep
[37:05] looking at. And we also have a paint shop.
[37:08] If you would notice all the painting on the DRD for
[37:14] basically painting on the aircraft or the all the new
[37:18] tails of Air India have been done by us.
[37:20] So we do a significant amount of work on the paint shop also.
[37:24] So our MRO is 100% full. In fact, we had to refuse
[37:28] business last year. This year, also in early April,
[37:30] we already turned on various aircraft we want to fly in
[37:33] because we don't have capacity. Having said that, we are
[37:36] embarking on an expansion and we would be expanding it.
[37:39] When do we get to know more about the expansion plans of the
[37:42] MRO then? These are all documents, these
[37:45] are things which we need to get the boat clearance, so therefore
[37:48] I would not like to spell out more on this.
[37:51] Your cargo business grew 22% year on year, mainly due to
[37:57] international cargo. What challenges do you foresee
[38:01] in scaling operations and how do you plan to address them?
[38:06] So you're right, the international cargo has grown
[38:08] significantly and primarily driven by imports significantly
[38:11] almost we had a 38 or 39% growth in imports.
[38:14] So that's something which good which has happened.
[38:17] Having said that, we have embarked on an expansion for the
[38:21] existing terminal. The capacity of the existing
[38:24] terminal was to handle 1,50,000 ton and we have done almost
[38:28] 1,68,000 tons last year and we are already constructing a
[38:34] second cargo terminal wherein a new operator will come.
[38:38] So there will be competition. So that is something which is
[38:40] going to be ready by July or August of this coming year.
[38:46] So once that is operational and also an ongoing expansion would
[38:49] take the capacity to 3,00,000 tons.
[38:51] So both put together, we should have significant capacity close
[38:54] to 4,00,000 tons which will be required for the in this phase
[38:57] of the construct. Another important conversation
[39:02] in the industry is around sustainability.
[39:06] What are your net zero plans and what are your thoughts on SAF?
[39:11] So as I was mentioning to you, the Hyderabad airport has
[39:14] recently in the recently concluded ACI conference being
[39:17] awarded the Level 5 accreditation, which is the
[39:20] highest level of accreditation given by ACI Airport Council
[39:25] International, which is for the carbon reduction program or
[39:29] Netzero program. So we have, we have currently
[39:34] almost 90, 8% achieved target of net 0 for scope one and scope 2.
[39:43] Our entire airport power is from green sources and we have a lot
[39:49] of the equipment that are already converted into electric
[39:53] and CNG. So these are things which have
[39:56] already been done. So which are actually moving
[39:58] towards the net curve 0 and we have committed that by a
[40:01] particular year we will be 90. So there are some some of these
[40:04] things as a result of which we have already done that.
[40:06] We also have water recycling here which is significantly good
[40:10] waste recycling complete waste is being used in house to
[40:15] convert into you know the manual.
[40:18] So these are things which are already in place and we have
[40:20] constantly been in the forefront on sustainability.
[40:24] On the last point about SAF, this is a government initiative
[40:28] which is being done and the Government of India has already
[40:30] said that 1% of the mixing will be there in the the ATF shortly
[40:37] next year onwards and thereafter they gradually will take it up
[40:39] to 5%. So as far as I can understand
[40:43] that same infrastructure, what we have today, we will be able
[40:45] to handle this. So that's something which you
[40:46] are looking at and we are looking to support this as we go
[40:49] forward. Few months back, Manoj Chako of
[40:53] Fly 91 was on the podcast and he mentioned how the support of
[40:58] airports is critical for expanding regional aviation in
[41:03] the country. Without naming any airport, he
[41:07] mentioned how some airports penalize and not fully encourage
[41:11] ATR operations. You know, due to some myths as
[41:16] he called them. What are your thoughts on
[41:19] regional aviation and what is Hyderabad doing to encourage
[41:23] regional airlines like Star Air or Fly 91?
[41:27] So we do support them in all the ways they do come to us with a
[41:33] request for slots. They want to connect to
[41:36] destinations which are small destinations, which are of the
[41:40] radar of the bigger airlines. So these increases the
[41:43] connectivity into our airport. So we do support them in a big
[41:46] way. The main challenges that these
[41:49] are, I mean both the airlines you mentioned of, they have a
[41:53] very small fleet and they're just growing in pits.
[41:56] But we do support them. So we don't see any challenges
[41:58] with them because especially we don't have a constraint of
[42:01] capacity and these will add more destinations which is good for
[42:05] US. 49% of GAL is owned by group ADP.
[42:11] Have there been any learnings or best practices that have been
[42:15] implemented at Hyderabad or any best practices from Hyderabad
[42:19] that have gone to other group, ADP or GAL airports?
[42:24] So there are a couple of people who are actually come from the
[42:29] ADP group and they are working as part of the corporate at the
[42:32] really senior level and their inputs are received.
[42:36] And we have sent our teams to both Charles Stigall and Rosie.
[42:41] And we do pick up a lot of learnings.
[42:44] I mean, so it's a, it's a collaborative effort.
[42:47] I'm sure even things which are being done here would be perhaps
[42:51] taken up there. So we keep learning and we keep
[42:55] incorporating. There are some methods in which
[42:58] even in the way we look at the future and all is something
[43:02] which they look at. And these are some things which
[43:04] we keep learning as we go off. What, according to you, is the
[43:09] biggest challenge ahead for Indian aviation and its growth
[43:13] in the future? So one big challenge which is
[43:17] likely to come to the Indian aviation is that as the more and
[43:20] more aircrafts are going to come in, you know, the the order
[43:24] book, if both Indigo and Air India is significant.
[43:27] And over the next 10 years, if all these aircrafts are flying,
[43:34] there will be a huge dearth of talent within India for I mean,
[43:39] you know, it's just not the airlines which require talent,
[43:43] it's the airports. You know, we are going to be
[43:45] expanding to accommodate that kind of a growth and that's
[43:49] something which we have to keep looking at.
[43:52] One of the ways of tackling this in the airport scenario could be
[43:55] that we adopt more and more technology where you are able to
[43:58] manage more with less resources. So that's something which we
[44:01] will do, but in there will be a shortage of talent.
[44:06] And is that something you keep talking about to Mocha, sharing
[44:09] your suggestions about infra and talent to help feel the growth
[44:13] of the sector? So we see this is something that
[44:18] even Mocha is aware of and they are also working on it.
[44:21] And in fact, if you do recollect, I did mention the
[44:24] MRO, we have a, you know, a school of aviation which is
[44:28] started last year. We had enrolled close to 134
[44:34] students for an aircraft maintenance engineer program.
[44:38] This is the 10 + 2 students who have taken science.
[44:41] So this is a very good carrier option which we have developed
[44:43] primarily. Of course, it is something like
[44:46] a backward integration for us because this indeed does create
[44:49] the pipeline of talent we require.
[44:52] And with this growth of demand, with the need of constant supply
[44:56] for the people, we have created the institute and this should be
[45:00] able to do 174 odd people next year.
[45:03] So this is one thing which we do.
[45:05] But having said that, the government is actually aware of
[45:10] this thing and they are looking at saying how to further
[45:13] increase the skills, skilled manpower availability for the
[45:16] industry. As this show proudly represents
[45:21] our geeks in the country, there is always a request for a system
[45:25] to encourage plane spotting. For example, so many airports
[45:28] internationally have viewing decks.
[45:31] Can we expect something like that or other facilities in
[45:35] future at Hyderabad? So, you know, if you have
[45:40] actually gone around the Indian airports, you will see the wall
[45:45] around the airport, unlike in internationally, it's not bar
[45:48] fence, it's actually hard concrete walls.
[45:51] So the security requirement of our country is different from
[45:54] the security requirement of other countries thanks to our
[45:58] neighborhood. So one reason why these high,
[46:02] high walls are there along with perhaps even, you know, many of
[46:05] them being manned by security forces is primarily given by the
[46:09] security concerns which we encounter.
[46:12] So having said that, I don't know maybe there is a
[46:16] possibility of possibly developing some spaces which are
[46:19] sanitized spaces where it is possible for people to watch the
[46:23] aircraft, but that's something which they that will work on
[46:26] separately. Well, I do hope that you give
[46:30] some attention to that and I would like to thank you Pradeep
[46:33] for giving time and being on the Indian app Geek.
[46:38] Thank you. Great conversation with Pradeep.
[46:41] Always good to know how airports function and the minds behind
[46:45] them. Next week, get ready to get
[46:49] cranky. And I would leave it at that.
[46:53] Here's another reminder that India's number one aviation
[46:57] podcast is now streaming on Jio 7 as well.
[47:01] So whether you prefer Spotify or Apple Podcasts or Pocket Casts
[47:06] or Amazon Music or any other podcast app for that matter, you
[47:11] can listen to the Indian app Geek every week.
[47:16] Alright, if you enjoyed this episode, don't forget to
[47:18] subscribe and share it with your fellow app geeks.
[47:22] Pradeep is not an axe, but I am at Vishal 1 Mehra.
[47:26] With that, keep your tray tables up, your seatbelts fastened.
[47:31] I wish you well and happy flying my friends.

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