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Rs 60 cr profit at ‘Ghost’ Juhu airport
The Juhu Aerodrome, which handles 100 helicopters and is the busiest heliport in India has reported a Rs 60.08 crore profit to the Airports Authority of India (AAI) kitty, making it the third most profitable airport for the government in the country, despite a host of critical requirements that will enable to make it safer for flying having remained in the cold storage.At the same time, it is listed as a ghost airport.Operators working out of Juhu are surprised at it being mentioned in the list of ghost airports. “It is shocking to note this. On the one hand, the airport is contributing to profits. On the other, the authorities have deliberately and falsely stated that all obstacles in the approach surface are temporary in nature,” Mallaya Channam, former deputy general manager – Western Region, Mumbai Air Traffic Control (ATC) said.
While Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathy Raju said in a written reply in the Lok Sabha on Friday that airports incurred losses due to low revenue generation and that AAI has drawn up a master plan for development and increase in non-aeronautical revenues at airports across India, for Juhu all plans have only remained on paper and it finds a mention in the list of ghost airports tabled in parliament.
Sources revealed that in the past three years, authorities at Juhu refused permissions to 40 aircrafts citing a space crunch, even as major li censing issues remain. After the Juhu’s aerodrome licence expired in February, the renewal process dragged on because the aviation regulator was unsatisfied with certain parameters related to safety. When the license was renewed in early June, the DGCA called for compliance reports to be submitted within a specified timeframe and this is yet to be adhered to. Jacob Markstrom Jersey
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