MUMBAI: Adani Airports CEO Arun Bansal said the company does not want to compete with its airline customers and has enough opportunities in the airport business, a day after govt said it was examining the pros and cons of allowing airport operators such as Adani Group to run airlines.“As airport CEO, I would not like to compete with my own customers. My hands are full,” Bansal said at SBI Banking and Economics Conclave. Bansal said the growth opportunity in India’s aviation sector was large enough for Adani Airports to focus its bandwidth on expanding its airport operations rather than entering the airline business.“India will be the fastest-growing aviation market in the world over the next 10 years and will be among the top two markets,” he said. Adani Airports currently handles about 100 million passengers and Bansal said the company expected India’s aviation sector to grow substantially over the next two decades. With GDP potentially growing eightfold in 20 years and aviation growing faster than GDP, the sector could expand about tenfold, he said. “If we are able to capture that, we will be number one in the world,” Bansal said.Adani Airports is already the second-largest airport operator globally by passenger traffic, according to Bansal. The company operates airports including Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Lucknow, Thiruvananthapuram, Jaipur, Guwahati and Navi Mumbai.Bansal said the company planned to invest about $11 billion in airport infrastructure in India over the next five years.
