Hyderabad | 28 November, 2009

GMR Hyderabad International Airport Limited (GHIAL) and Airports Council International, (ACI World) Geneva, have signed an agreement for the appointment of the GMR Aviation Academy as a Global Training Hub for the Asia Pacific region.

The agreement was signed in Hyderabad today, by Mr. Kiran Kumar Grandhi, Business Chairman, Airports, GMR Group and Ms. Angela Gittens, Director General, ACI World.

Through this agreement, the GMR Aviation Academy will facilitate ACI’s training opportunities that help develop managerial and operational standards, and spread knowledge of best practices throughout the world’s airports.

Commenting on the occasion, Mr. P. Sripathy, CEO, GHIAL said, “Considering that the other such training hubs within Asia Pacific are located at Dubai in the UAE, Incheon in South Korea and Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia, the GMR Aviation Academy will provide an ideal training venue, not just for the professionals from within the airports in India, but also from those in the SAARC countries.

“And with twelve new greenfield airports that will be coming up, and a majority of the existing 126 airports that are operated by the Airports Authority of India which will be upgraded, there will be a substantial increase in the number of requirements of adequately trained staff that are employed by airports, their suppliers and the different service providers.

“The GMR Aviation Academy will be geared up to provide the best, professional training that the qualified instructors from ACI will impart here in Hyderabad”, Mr. Sripathy added.

Ms. Angela Gittens, Director General, ACI World, who made a presentation on “Forging a vision of sustainable aviation”, said that, “Simply put, airports are capital intensive businesses highly dependent on economies of scale. Even in a downturn airports have to invest to provide capacity for the future. And user charges may have to increase.

“I note that India has some of the lowest user charges in the world but India has also lagged behind in providing capacity. Now that India is indeed providing the capacity the airlines and the communities need, it is only natural that user charges will have to rise, at least in the short term”, she added.

Airports Council International (ACI), the voice of the world’s airports has 1700 member airports. ACI Global Training was established to make training opportunities more accessible, and help develop managerial and operational standards at its member airports worldwide.