New Delhi: GMR Airports and Adani Airports are increasingly relying on passengers to shop, dine, and spend more at airports to drive their next phase of growth, as non-aeronautical businesses emerge as their primary revenue driver. Adani Airport is targeting a 70% contribution from non-aero businesses by 2030, from 56% currently, while GMR Airports expects its non-aero platform to grow at about 15% annually on a sustained basis.
The non-aero businesses, which include retail, duty-free, food and beverage, lounges, parking and commercial development, already account for about half of the two operators’ income.
GMR Airports, the country’s largest private airport operator, which manages Delhi, Hyderabad and Goa’s Mopa airports in India, as well as an airport in Indonesia, handled 30.5 million passengers in the June quarter, with traffic growing just 1%. Yet non-aero revenue across its three Indian airports rose 11%, including 13% at Delhi, 12% at Hyderabad and 8% at Mopa.
Adani Airport, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Adani Enterprises Ltd, the flagship entity of the Adani Group, operates eight airports, including Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Mangalore, Lucknow, Jaipur, Thiruvananthapuram and Guwahati. Its non-aeronautical revenue jumped 53% year-on-year to ₹2,136 crore in the June quarter, while passenger traffic rose 3% to 24.2 million.
The strategy allows the companies to increase revenue from existing passengers rather than depend entirely on growth in passenger traffic or aeronautical charges, especially when passenger growth is slowing.
In an investor call hosted by brokerage Motilal Oswal and attended by Jugesindher ‘Robbie’ Singh, chief financial officer, Adani Enterprises, and Arun Bansal, chief executive officer, Adani Airport Holdings, executives said Adani Enterprises has set a target of raising the contribution of non-aeronautical businesses to 70% of revenue by 2030, from 56% at present.
An email sent to GMR Airports seeking comment went unanswered.
Bet on spending, not merely flying
“Globally, there are examples of a 30-70 mix, that is 30% aero revenue and the remaining being non-aero. So this looks like an achievable number going forward when capex cycles come down, and airports mature,” said Ankita Shah, vice president at brokerage, Elara Capital.
The strategy reflects a fundamental change in the airport business: the next phase of growth is increasingly about monetising passengers, not merely handling them.
Non-aero yield per passenger at Adani managed airports jumped to ₹883, up 48% year-on-year and 25% sequentially from ₹708 in the March quarter.
“(Growth of) non-aero…depends on the current geopolitical issue…So if the growth comes back in the international passenger market as planned, you should see the similar growth (revenues) continuing during the year,” Bansal told investors during the AEL investor call post their June-quarter results.
An Adani spokesperson told Mint that non-aero remains the biggest growth opportunity at airports, driven by aspiration. ”The growth in non-aero is also driven by an increase in penetration, led by our Adani One App. City side [development] will start to contribute to revenue from FY30 onwards,” the spokesperson said.
“The opportunity, therefore, is not simply to increase footfall at airport shops. It is to increase the conversion and spending of each passenger,” Elara’s Shah said.
Expanding retail space, room to grow
GMR is pursuing a similar model, although its current focus is on growing the non-aero platform rather than setting a specific revenue-mix target.
Its non-aero yield per passenger was ₹691 in the June quarter, up 8% sequentially from ₹640 in the March quarter. The company expects non-aero spend per passenger to increase 7-8% over time. Last year’s non-aero numbers are not directly comparable for GMR because of changes in ownership across some of its non-aero businesses.
“On an organic basis, I think the (non-aero) business will grow at about 15-18% on a secular basis. You can assume 15% for sure. In good years, once the traffic starts to improve, 18% is also not very far away,” Saurabh Chawla, executive director, finance and strategy at GMR Airports, said during the company’s first-quarter earnings call.
GMR Airport’s total income was ₹4,080 crore, and nearly half of this was non-aero revenues.
At Hyderabad, the contrast between aero and non-aero revenue numbers is particularly stark: non-aero revenue grew even as the airport faced pressure on its aeronautical business.
GMR Airports is expanding the physical footprint available for commercial businesses. Hyderabad’s departure duty-free area has increased from 400 sq m to 1,300 sq m, while GMR plans to add another 400-500 sq m to the arrival-side duty-free area at Delhi.
In India, there is no direct bar on how much space inside a terminal building can be used for retail or non-aero purposes. It depends on the agreement between the concessionaire or airport operator and their designs, and varies from airport to airport.
“Compared to Adani, GMR still has relatively smaller and newer airports. Plus, the effects of Nagpur and Bhogapuram airports are yet to come in. As that happens, the per-passenger yield for GMR Airports would move up, too,” Elara’s Shah said.
Change in airport economics
In July, GMR took over the Nagpur airport and in August operationalised Bhogapuram. These numbers will likely reflect in the September quarter results.
The economics are straightforward. A passenger can generate revenue through a duty-free purchase, restaurant meal, lounge access, parking, advertising or retail transaction without the airport having to handle another flight.
The trend is not unique to India.
The Airports Council International (ACI) World said in a 17 March 2026 blog that non-aeronautical revenue accounted for 36.7% of airport income globally, rising to 43.5% in the Asia-Pacific, West Asia and Africa region. Globally, non-aeronautical revenue offset 48% of total airport costs, with the proportion exceeding 50% in Apac-MEA and Europe.
The broader bet is the same: as passenger growth becomes harder to extract, airports must make each passenger more valuable.
- Adani targets a 70% non-aero revenue mix by 2030.
- Non-aero income shields operators from the slowdown in overall passenger traffic growth rates.
- GMR projects a baseline 15% sustained annual growth in non-aero revenue.
- Only 30% of current airport travellers purchase items at Adani terminals.
- Global airports use retail income to offset nearly half their operational costs.