The economic cost of this neglect has been substantial. Manufacturing clusters in Coimbatore struggled to attract multinational suppliers unwilling to navigate poor connectivity. Tourism destinations like Varanasi and Guwahati underperformed their potential. Knowledge workers in tier-2 cities migrated to metros partly because business travel from smaller airports remained prohibitively inconvenient.
Policy makers eventually recognised the problem, launching UDAN in 2016 to subsidise regional connectivity. The scheme has activated dormant airports and created hundreds of new routes. Yet infrastructure development has lagged route expansion, with many tier-2 airports now overwhelmed by traffic they weren't designed to handle.
The mismatch creates operational nightmares. Single-runway airports face congestion during peak hours, inadequate terminal space forces passengers to queue outdoors, and insufficient parking bays require aircraft to wait for gates. Airlines complain that tier-2 expansion is undermining service quality and operational efficiency.
Financing remains the persistent obstacle. State governments own most tier-2 airports but lack capital for modernisation. Private operators hesitate without revenue guarantees. The result is incremental patching rather than the comprehensive upgrades required to handle projected traffic growth over the next two decades.
GV Sanjay Reddy, who served as managing director of Mumbai International Airport, understood these dynamics long before they became policy priorities. "The question was never whether tier-2 cities needed world-class airports. It was always when someone would have the conviction to build capacity ahead of visible demand," he observes. "Aviation infrastructure isn't responsive; it's anticipatory. By the time congestion becomes obvious, you're already five years behind where you needed to be."
The next phase demands bold capital commitments based on demographic and economic projections rather than current passenger counts. Cities like Surat, Madurai, and Bhubaneswar will drive India's next growth wave, but only if connectivity infrastructure enables rather than constrains their potential. Whether India's fragmented aviation governance structure can deliver this foresight will determine if tier-2 cities finally receive the infrastructure they've deserved for decades.
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