Adani plans to bid for 11 more airports in India expansion
India’s Adani Group plans to aggressively expand its airport business, with billionaire Gautam Adani’s conglomerate set to bid for 11 government-owned airports as part of an $11 billion airport infrastructure expansion, a senior executive said.
Jeet Adani, director at Adani Airports Holdings Limited, said the company intends to participate in all upcoming bids as New Delhi moves to lease state-run airports to private operators. The federal government has identified 11 airports, including those in Amritsar and Varanasi, for long-term private leasing, News.Az reports, citing Reuters.
“We will be bidding for all of them,” Jeet Adani said in an interview in Mumbai.
The expansion comes as India’s aviation sector experiences rapid growth. Adani Airports currently manages seven airports across the country and is preparing to operationalise a new airport near Mumbai, the first it has built from scratch, later this month. The group is already India’s largest airport operator by number of airports, while rival GMR Group leads by passenger volume.
India’s government aims to increase the number of airports to 350–400 by 2047, up from 163 today, as air travel demand continues to surge. According to industry data, around 174 million passengers travelled within and from India by air in 2024, marking a 10% increase from the previous year. Indian airlines have also placed orders for more than 1,300 aircraft since 2023.
Despite the aviation boom, Jeet Adani said the group has no plans to enter the airline business, citing low profit margins and operational complexity. “Our comfort and core competency is in creating and running long-term infrastructure assets efficiently,” he said.
The planned expansion underlines Adani Group’s push to capitalise on India’s fast-growing aviation market while strengthening its position as a dominant player in airport infrastructure.
Similar news
