Kannur International Airport Ltd (KIAL)
Kerala's fourth international airport, opened in December 2018 under a state-led public-private model with BPCL, banks and NRIs as shareholders – still loss-making as traffic builds and it waits for point-of-call rights.
Market cap
₹1,637 Cr
13.20 Cr shares
P/E ratio
Loss making
Sector average 40
Book value
₹44.32
P/B 2.80
1-year return
+1.37%
52w ₹100 – ₹140
Currently 60% of the way through its 52-week range.
Indicative price history
1Y change
+0.85% ₹123 → ₹124
52-week band in this window: ₹118.55 – ₹128.97. Weekly indicative marks, not exchange-traded prices.
Key highlights
- Greenfield international airport opened December 2018 with a 3,050 m runway and capacity for 4.5 million passengers.
- Government of Kerala, BPCL, banks and thousands of NRI shareholders own the equity; face value ₹100.
- About 2.5 million passengers a year; still loss-making pending point-of-call rights and traffic growth.
About KIAL
Kannur International Airport Limited (KIAL) owns and operates the greenfield international airport at Mattannur in north Kerala, which opened on 9 December 2018. Modelled on Cochin International Airport's public-private structure, it was promoted by the Government of Kerala (which with KSIDC and other state agencies holds around a third of the equity) with Bharat Petroleum as the largest corporate investor (about 22%), public-sector and private banks, and thousands of non-resident Keralite and resident individual shareholders. The Chief Minister of Kerala chairs the board.
The airport has a 3,050-metre runway (expandable to 4,000 m), a 97,000 sq m terminal built for 4.5 million passengers a year and a large land bank of about 2,300 acres. It handles roughly 2.5 million passengers a year, mostly Gulf traffic on Air India Express, IndiGo and Gulf carriers, plus domestic flights. Foreign airlines cannot yet operate to Kannur because the Centre has not granted point-of-call status, a constraint the state has lobbied to lift.
Financially the airport earns aeronautical charges, ground handling, cargo, retail and parking income of roughly ₹200–250 Cr a year on our estimates, but depreciation on a project cost of over ₹2,300 Cr and interest on about ₹900 Cr of bank debt keep it in losses of the order of ₹80–120 Cr a year. Shares have a face value of ₹100 and were issued at par to the public; the dealer quote of about ₹124 is a small premium to par against a book value that has eroded with accumulated losses.
Registry identifiers and several figures could not be verified against public sources at the time of writing; line items are reconstructed around reported or estimated totals; treat them as approximate. Shareholding percentages and share count are estimates.
Where the revenue comes from
- Aeronautical revenue55%
Landing, parking, passenger service and user development fees
- Non-aeronautical revenue35%
Retail, duty-free, F&B, advertising, car parking, land leases
- Cargo and ground handling10%
Cargo terminal and handling services
Products & services
Aeronautical services
Landing, parking, passenger and user-development fees.
Non-aeronautical services
Retail, duty-free, F&B, advertising, parking and land leases.
Cargo and ground handling
Cargo terminal and handling for domestic and Gulf freight.
What works
- • Strategic asset with a large land bank, a long runway and terminal capacity for growth to 4.5 million passengers and beyond.
- • State government backing and a shareholder base that includes BPCL and major banks; potential aero-city, cargo and MRO development on surplus land.
- • Strong Gulf-diaspora catchment in Kannur, Kasaragod, Wayanad and coastal Karnataka.
What to watch
- • Loss-making since opening; equity value depends on traffic growth, tariff orders from AERA and refinancing of bank debt.
- • Point-of-call status for foreign carriers has been denied for years, capping international growth.
- • Unlisted liquidity is thin and the ₹100 face value means the quote barely exceeds issue price after eight years.