Its is seeking to impose a development fee on passenger movements on account of a shortfall of Rs 2,000 crore in raising capital for the project. One of the reasons for the shortfall is a dip in MIAL’s internal accrual figures (from airport traffic), according to MIAL. The Mumbai airport has reported a steep fall in passenger movement for the current financial year till January 2009 and expects an overall decline of about 12 % for financial year 2008-09. According to figures obtained by Newsline, passenger movement figures for months April ’08 to January’09 are 19.7 million which is considerably lower than the 21.5 million passenger footfalls recorded for the same months for 2007-08. A spokesperson from the GVK-led private consortium said that because of the low figures for the current fiscal, MIAL expects total passenger movement figures to just fall by 12%.

Last year, the country’s busiest airport recorded passenger 25.08 million footfalls compared to 23.9 million at Delhi airport, the country’s second busiest airport. The final figures this year at the Mumbai airport, according to estimates, will even fall below 2006-07 figures that stood at 22.5 million. Although these figures can be attributed to the current markets gloom, the Mumbai airport is all set to lose the top spot in terms of passenger movement by 2010 to Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGI), which is also operated by the GMR-led private consortium.