On July 13, Ahmedabad-based Adani Group’s founder Gautam Adani announced that the wholly-owned subsidiary of Adani Enterprises Ltd., Adani Airport Holdings Ltd. (AAHL) had taken over Mumbai International Airport Limited (MIAL). Previously, GVK Group owned the management control of MIAL.
We are delighted to take over management of the world class Mumbai International Airport. We promise to make Mumbai proud. The Adani Group will build an airport ecosystem of the future for business, leisure and entertainment. We will create thousands of new local jobs.
— Gautam Adani (@gautam_adani) July 13, 2021
In the country, AAHL has become the largest airport operator in terms of number of airports under its control.
The company stated that with India attaining the position of the third-largest aviation market by the year 2024, the inclusion of MIAL to the group’s existing portfolio of six airports and subsequently, the operationalization of the greenfield Navi Mumbai International Airport Limited (NMIAL) would provide a transformational aviation platform allowing the Adani Group to interlink its B2B and B2C business along with creating several strategic adjacencies for the company’s other B2B businesses.
Gautam Adani added, “Our larger objective is to reinvent airports as ecosystems that drive local economic development and act as the nuclei around which we can catalyse aviation-linked businesses.”
He continued saying that metropolitan developments which span entertainment facilities, e-commerce and logistics capabilities, aviation dependent industries, smart city developments as well as other innovative business concepts are included too.
Adani informed the company’s airport strategy which aims at converging the country’s “Tier 1 cities with the Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities in a hub and spoke model.” He said the strategy was fundamental to achieve a higher equalization of India’s urban–rural divide and making international travel seamless and smooth.
