The Airports Authority of India (AAI) will invest Rs15,000 crore by 2028 to upgrade air traffic control (ATC) tower automation, navigational systems and other critical infrastructure, chairman Vipin Kumar said on Wednesday.
Speaking to reporters at Wings India 2026, he said the investment is aimed at making India’s air navigation infrastructure future-ready and aligned with global standards. This is in anticipation of strong growth in domestic and international air traffic over the next decade.
“For the upgradation, we have assessed every airport, each ATC tower and every technical power system," Kumar said. "What systems are required, how old they are and their remaining life... based on this, we have prepared a roadmap involving an investment of Rs15,000 crore, which will be completed by the end of 2028.”
He added that AAI has already floated tenders for several projects, while others are in the pipeline. The entire investment will be funded through internal accruals, without recourse to external borrowing.
The proposed upgrades come months after the Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi faced a major air traffic control failure when a software malfunction disrupted flight operations for nearly two days.
The problem was traced to the Aeronautical Message Switching System, which processes flight plans for aircraft taking off, landing and overflying Delhi’s airspace. With the system not functioning as expected, controllers had to process flight data manually, slowing operations.
More than 150 flights were affected within hours, with several delayed by over an hour. The disruption spread across airport operations as congestion built up on the ground.
Delhi airport handles about 1,550 flights a day, besides hundreds of overflights. Airlines issued advisories warning passengers of delays, while engineers from the Electronics Corporation of India Limited worked to restore the system. Aviation experts pointed to existing air traffic management systems as the cause and stressed the need for faster modernisation as traffic volumes continue to rise.
AAI is expected to report revenue of around Rs22,000 crore in the current financial year. The airport operator reported a net profit of Rs7,233.28 crore in FY25), a 55.5 percent increase over Rs4,651.31 crore in the previous fiscal. Total operating income rose by nearly 29 percent year on year to Rs20,648.25 crore from Rs15,979.83 crore.
Kumar said FY25's revenue included a one-time benefit of about Rs2,000 crore, and that the current year’s revenue should be seen as underlying growth.
Airport operators in India typically invest around Rs8,000 crore annually as capital expenditure, he explained, adding that the planned outlay reflects the scale of upgrades required to support rising traffic volumes.
Passenger traffic in India and South Asia is expected to grow at an average of 7 percent annually over the next 20 years, according to projections by Boeing. To meet this demand, airlines in the region will require nearly 3,330 new aircraft by 2044, the aircraft maker said.
Around 131 companies, including aircraft manufacturers such as Boeing, Airbus, Embraer and Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, as well as airlines like Air India and IndiGo are participating in Wings India 2026. A total of 34 aircraft and helicopters were on display on the opening day.
First Published: Jan 29, 2026, 11:30
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