Nagpur’s Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar International Airport, once envisioned as a cornerstone of India’s aviation landscape, finds itself ensnared in a quagmire of challenges, impeding its trajectory towards becoming a global aviation hub.
Despite its strategic central location, symbolic of potential, the airport languishes amidst a landscape of underperformance and unrealised aspirations. The core of Nagpur’s aviation ambitions lies within the Multimodal International Cargo Hub and Airport (MIHAN) project, conceived over a decade and a half ago. Designed to leverage Nagpur’s central positioning, MIHAN aimed to transform the airport into a bustling global cargo hub, facilitating seamless cargo transfer and redistribution. However, recent data paints a bleak picture, with international cargo volumes plummeting by a staggering 60% in the fiscal year ending March 2024, exacerbating concerns over MIHAN’s viability.
Compounding Nagpur’s aviation woes is its meagre international connectivity, epitomised by just two sporadic flights to Doha and Sharjah, underscoring its marginal presence on the international aviation map. While domestic passenger traffic witnessed a modest uptick, Nagpur’s international passenger and flight volumes pale in comparison to its joint venture counterparts, particularly Kannur Airport, which outstrips Nagpur’s international traffic figures manifold. The advent of ISHAN (Indian Single Sky Harmonized Air Traffic Management from Nagpur) offers a glimmer of hope amidst the gloom, envisaging Nagpur as a unified air traffic control centre, albeit its realisation remains elusive. However, Nagpur’s ambition to attract flights from both hemispheres faces a significant hurdle, with bilateral agreements restricting foreign airlines from ASEAN nations, thwarting Nagpur’s bid to diversify its international air services.
Critics attribute Nagpur’s aviation stagnation to a dearth of proactive measures to court international airlines and bolster export infrastructure, leading to a haemorrhage of air cargo traffic to neighbouring hubs like Mumbai and Hyderabad. While passenger numbers exhibit a modest surge, Nagpur’s struggle to carve a niche in the international aviation arena persists, emblematic of an airport grappling to transcend its Tier-2 status. As Nagpur Airport grapples with the exigencies of revitalising its aviation aspirations, stakeholders emphasise the imperative of concerted efforts to surmount existing hurdles and steer the airport towards its envisaged destiny as a global aviation nexus.
