The Mangalore airport recorded an operating profit of Rs 9.5 crore for 2011-12.
Speaking on the sidelines of a function of the airport’s diamond jubilee celebration committee, M.R. Vasudeva, Mangalore Airport Director, Airports Authority of India (AAI), said that the income of the airport during 2011-12 was Rs 42 crore. It incurred an expenditure of around Rs 32.5 crore during the year. The operating profit stood at Rs 9.5 crore.
The airport, which suffered a loss of Rs 2.5 crore during 2002-03, has seen significant growth in traffic and revenue in the recent years. During 2002-03, the income of the airport was Rs 4 crore and expenditure was Rs 6.5 crore, he said. Vasudeva said that civil and electrical works related to air cargo complex at Mangalore airport has been completed at a cost of Rs 45 lakh.
The AAI has written a letter to the Customs Department to make AAI the custodian of cargo at the airport. The air cargo complex is planned at the old terminal building of Mangalore airport. Recently, Union Power and Corporate Affairs Minister Veerappa Moily, had stated that the Union Civil Aviation Ministry had informed him of the early commissioning of air cargo complex.
This followed Moily’s participation in the exporters’ convention in Mangalore recently, which was organised by the Federation of Indian Export Organisations. In that meet, exporters had stressed the need for an air cargo complex at Mangalore airport with cold storage facilities for agro products.
On the other projects at the airport, Vasudeva said that nearly 20 per cent of the work on the construction of an air traffic control block has been completed at the airport. He hoped that the civil works on this project could be completed by January.