Mumbai Airport to have dedicated LCC terminal by 2012

Mumbai: Mumbai International Airport Limited (MIAL) has said that it will set up an integrated low-cost terminal for the Low-Cost Carriers (LCCs) by 2012 in order to cope with the high passenger loads that LCCs, domestic and international, are consistently recording.

The facility is expected to cost Rs250 crore.

The MIAL consortium, which is carrying out upgradation and expansion of the Chattrapati Shivaji International Airport (CSIA) plans to shift the existing domestic terminal at Santa Cruz to the international terminal situated at the adjoining Sahar facility in order to construct a dedicated low-cost terminal.

The proposed terminal will have 150 check-in counters, 15 rapid taxi-bays, parking slots for more than 60 aircraft and car parking space to accommodate over 5,000 vehicles.

Cureently, MIAL is involved in acquiring more than 75,000 sq mtrs of land by rehabilitating the slums adjoining the airport in order to develop rapid taxi-ways and parking slots.

"More than 10 LCCs are predicted to operate in the Indian skies in the next five years and there is an urgent requirement to upgrade the airports by having a full-fledged LCC terminal catering solely to the no-frill domestic and international carriers," stated Sanjay Reddy, managing director, MIAL.