Ratings agency ICRA has said that Indian airport operators are expected to see an 18-20 per cent topline year-on-year growth in this fiscal (FY26), driven by a sustained improvement in passenger traffic and tariff hike as well as ramp-up in non-aeronautical revenues. Further, it estimates overall air passenger traffic growing at a healthy 7-9 per cent Y-o-Y to reach at 440-450 million in FY26, on the back of an around 10 per cent estimated increase in the just concluded financial year. The overall passenger traffic (domestic and international) is estimated at 412-415 million in FY25.
The ratings agency said its estimation is based on a sample set of airports, including those managed and operated by the Airports Authority of India (AAI), as well as Delhi, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Cochin International Airports, which operate under the public-private partnership (PPP) model. Also, given the capacity bottleneck faced by a few airports, the sector will continue to witness substantial capex.
According to ICRA, investments of more than Rs 1 trillion are expected over the next 4-5 years, including greenfield airports such as Jewar (Noida), Navi Mumbai, Bhogapuram (AP) Parandur (Chennai). These expected investments will also go into brownfield expansions which include Bangalore, Hyderabad, Cochin, Mumbai and Nagpur airports and upgradation of airports under the AAI.
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