There is a reason why the Thiruvananthapuram International Airport is no ordinary airport for folks in Kerala's capital.
Old-timers still speak of a rainy October day 86 years ago as if it had never really happened, like it was the most magical story they were ever told. On October 29, 1935, rain-soaked hundreds who had gathered along the Shanghumughom coast, near the new airport at Chackai, saw a bird approaching, “a strange bird with double-layered wings and the sound of a million dragonflies.”
As the 'bird' neared, sounding like the end of the world, it is said that many ran for their lives and some even threw themselves into the sea.
The wonder was not in the sighting of de Havilland (DH.83) Fox Moth, the first aircraft to land in Trivandrum Airport. But in what was hidden inside the mythical-seeming two-seater aircraft: a birthday wish for Travancore's beloved king, Sri Chithira Thirunal Balarama Varma, from the most powerful man in British India then, viceroy Lord Willingdon.
Thus, the strip of land to which a 'giant dragonfly' brought the grandest ever birthday wish for their king became the setting for Travancore's most cherished myth, and also its personal property.
On October 18, it will cease to be. The airport will be Adani's, India's second richest man.
Adani's own country
October 18 is the deadline set for Adani Thiruvananthapuram International Airport Limited (ATIAL), a subsidiary of Adani Enterprises Limited, to take over the Thiruvananthapuram International Airport from the Airports Authority of India (AAI).
Adani should have moved in three months before, by July 18. But COVID-19 had forced him to ask for more time. In 2018, Adani had won the bid to 'operate, manage and develop' the Thiruvananthapuram airport – along with others in Ahmedabad, Lucknow, Jaipur, Guwahati, and Mangalore - for 50 years. The ATIAL signed the take-over agreement with the AAI on January 19 this year.
From October 18, the Adani Group will be free to ring in any changes that would allow it to operate, manage and develop the airport into a high-profit entity. “The agreement allows them vast powers and the development they usher in will depend on the Adani Group's management perspective,” a top AAI official said on the condition of anonymity.
Adani's advantage
Under the AAI, the Thiruvananthapuram airport had lost badly to the competition. As it was under the AAI and was trapped in bureaucratic red tape, the Thiruvananthapuram International Airport was unable to provide various concessions that could have attracted top airlines to Thiruvananthapuram. Even Cochin International Airport Limited, which ran the Nedumbassery International Airport, could announce swift concessions and waive-offs.
Adani, therefore, is expected to infuse dynamism. “The ATIAL can now enter into direct negotiations with airlines to bring more direct flights to Thiruvananthapuram,” the AAI official said.
It is the Ministry of Civil Aviation that enters into air travel agreements with other countries. This would be a general bilateral agreement on operating air services to various points in both countries.
However, the points to which the aircraft would fly is the prerogative of the airline company and would depend on the company's perception of profitability and the business savvy of airport operators in both these countries.
Airline companies prefer to fly to profitable airports, and airport operators vie with each other to provide concessions. Many flights from Gulf regions that flew directly to Thiruvananthapuram were lured away by Kochi after the CIAL offered concessions in aeronautical charges.
An Adani Group official said the ATIAL would provide attractive sops to airline companies to lure them to Thiruvananthapuram. The Group, according to the official, is even thinking of direct flights from and to the UK and the US. Now, there are direct flights from Thiruvananthapuram mostly to Gulf countries.
Shopping its way to glory
If Adani has to slash charges like aircraft landing, parking and housing charges to lure the big birds, he would have to make up for the lost revenue by vastly improving the commercial revenue from the airport.
Thiruvananthapuram Airport has somehow not been able to develop a commercial culture. “Though we had tried, private agencies were reluctant to begin commercial operations from the airport,” former Airport director V N Chandran said.
At the moment, the user development fee (UDF) extracted from a passenger in Thiruvananthapuram airport is seen as exorbitant, over Rs 1000 for international passengers and nearly Rs 700 for domestic passengers. In other words, dismal non-aeronautical revenue from retail and food & beverage has forced the AAI to jack up the UDF, causing deep passenger resentment.
“Compared to other major airports like Delhi, Mumbai or even Kochi, Thiruvananthapuram is commercially inactive. If we can develop a mall-like ambience, with the best of retail brands like in other places, the revenue we can mobilise by way of rent would help us to substantially reduce the user development fee,” a top Adani Group source said.
In Nedumbassery airport, where there is a thriving commercial activity, the UDF is low compared to Thiruvananthapuram.
Adani will have to scale up commercial income as strategic and lucrative aeronautical operations like Air Traffic Management (ATM) and Communication, Navigation and Surveillance (CNS) will remain with the AAI. The ATIAL is already in talks with the Dubai-based Flemingo Group, which has shops in Mumbai and Chennai, to open a duty-free shop in the airport.
Pinarayi's selective show of defiance
That Adani will take over Thiruvananthapuram airport is certain but the Kerala government seems defiant. It has refused to enter into a State Support Agreement and had publicly declared that it would not part with the 18.5 acres required for the development of the second module of the airport, the domestic terminal; the first module, the international terminal, was developed on 23.57 acres.
This show of resistance is not taken seriously, though Kerala has challenged the hand-over in the Supreme Court. Even government officials Onmanorama talked to said there was nothing much the government could do as the Adani Group had secured the airport in a bonafide bidding process.
“Except for 50 cents, the 18.5 acres the previous UDF government had promised to acquire and hand over to the AAI belong to private landholders. Adani has his own ways to win over hesitant landowners and the state government can do nothing about it,” the government official said.
The refusal to sign the State Support Agreement, too, can only have a symbolic value. The SSA, essentially, is an assurance of state support to the private operator. “Even if the government refuses to sign the agreement, how can it say that public roads cannot be used to travel to the airport or that power connection should not be provided to the airport. It will be an infringement of fundamental rights,” the government official said.
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan's disapproval also seems inconsistent. Right when Adani won the bid in 2018, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had shot off a letter to the Prime Minister saying the state would find it difficult to back a private agency. Pinarayi had made a big show of his objection.
But when he met Narendra Modi on July 7 this year to discuss Kerala's development, the Chief Minister himself admitted in the Assembly that he had not discussed how Adani's takeover of Thiruvananthapuram airport would hurt the public interest.
Has Adani wronged Kerala?
On the face of it, Kerala cannot justifiably sulk. Kerala has now questioned the bidding process in which it too had participated, through a special purpose vehicle under KSIDC called TIAL (Trivandrum International Airport Limited). The TIAL was even given a 10% advantage in the bid; it would win even if it quoted less than the highest bidder provided the difference should not be more than 10%.
Adani but quoted an amount that was nearly 25% higher; Rs 168 per passenger fee was his quote while TIAL's Rs 135.
Later, a conflict-of-interest controversy erupted when it came to light that the TIAL's bid consultant was Cyril Amarchanddas Mangaldas, a firm in which Adani's daughter-in-law was a major partner. The firm, however, said it had no knowledge of TIAL's bid amount.
Suspicions about Adani
Nonetheless, there are serious concerns about Adani's take over. Top government sources say that Adani could reduce Thiruvananthapuram International Airport into a feeder airport.
“It is a genuine fear that Adani, who already has control over six major airports and would take over more in the years to come, would adopt a hub-and-spoke model where Ahmedabad (his base) would be the hub airport and other airports the spokes. If this happens, Thiruvananthapuram will be mainly conducting air ferry services, carrying international passengers to Ahmedabad where all the visa and emigration procedures will be completed,” the official said. “Then, the very term international airport would be a joke,” he added.
A brief history of flight
1932 - Established as part of the Royal Flying Club under the initiative of Col Goda Varma Raja, a pilot and consort of Travancore queen Karthika Thirunal Lakshmi Bayi.
October 29, 1935 - First flight arrives, a DH.83 Fox Moth aircraft, owned by J R D Tata, carrying birthday wishes for the king.
November 1, 1935 - First flight takes off, carrying royal mails to Bombay.
1977 - First international flight
January 1, 1991 - Becomes the fifth international airport in the country after those in Delhi, Bombay, Madras & Calcutta.
March 1, 2011 - First flight operated from the new international terminal, Terminal 2
November 2018 - Centre approves an AAI proposal to lease out six of its airports, including Trivandrum.
