IHCL to operate 2,000-room portfolio at Adani airports

By Daniel Okafor

Eight hotels and more than 2,000 rooms will be operated by Indian Hotels Company Ltd. (IHCL) under a multi-hotel agreement with Adani Airport Holdings Ltd. (AAHL), lifting IHCL’s airport portfolio to 25 hotels in India. The properties span Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Lucknow and Guwahati.

In Mumbai, construction is already underway on a Taj hotel at Mumbai airport’s Terminal 2. The wider program includes three Taj hotels, two Vivanta hotels, one Gateway hotel and two Ginger hotels, positioned for business, leisure and transit passengers.

Puneet Chhatwal, IHCL’s managing director and CEO, said: “With these additions, IHCL will have 25 hotels across its brandscape at key airports in India.”

AAHL, described as India’s largest airport operator, will develop the projects through Adani Airport City Ltd., while IHCL will operate them under its multi-brand portfolio. The split matters. The agreement assigns day-to-day hotel operation to IHCL and does not describe a franchise arrangement.

A ₹20,000 crore development pipeline

AAHL has formed Adani Airport City Limited to develop a land bank exceeding 655 acres across six airports in five states. Nearly 440 acres sit in Mumbai and Navi Mumbai.

In its first phase, Airport City plans to invest more than ₹20,000 crore in approximately 22 million square feet across Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Lucknow, Jaipur and Guwahati. Jaipur belongs to that development pipeline, though not to the eight-hotel agreement.

Jeet Adani, director of AAHL, said: “At Adani Airports, our ambition extends beyond operating airports to developing vibrant Airport Cities that bring together hospitality, business, retail and leisure, while enhancing the overall passenger and visitor experience.”

The commercial structure remains straightforward but incomplete. AAHL supplies the development platform and investment through Airport City; IHCL supplies the brands and hotel operations. The announcement did not disclose the eight properties’ development budget, room rates, projected occupancy, labor costs or operating margins. The ₹20,000 crore figure therefore cannot be read as their standalone cost.

Where the hotels will stand

• Mumbai: One Taj hotel, under construction at Terminal 2.
• Lucknow: One Vivanta hotel and one Ginger hotel.
• Ahmedabad: One Taj hotel and one Vivanta, both in advanced stages of construction.
• Guwahati: One Taj hotel, one Gateway hotel and one Ginger hotel.

Together, the eight properties are planned to combine accommodation with dining, meetings and events, wellness and recreation. AAHL positions the hotels as hospitality anchors within mixed-use districts linked to airports and surrounding cities, with passenger traffic, tourism and business travel expected to support demand. The company says these Airport Cities could contribute economically and culturally to their host cities.

What does this change for airport travelers?

For travelers, the practical change is a larger choice of branded airport hotels at four aviation gateways, with food, meetings, wellness and recreation planned alongside rooms. For IHCL and AAHL, it is a larger operating platform built around a division of labor: AAHL develops the airport districts, and IHCL runs the hotels under its own brands.

None of the properties has a stated opening date, and the announcement includes no pricing or occupancy targets. The near-term benefit for travelers will therefore depend on construction and commissioning schedules.

A 360-hotel platform behind the agreement

IHCL traces its corporate history to Jamsetji Tata, founder of the Tata Group, who incorporated the company. Its first hotel, the Taj Mahal Palace, opened in Bombay in 1903.

The company operates 360 hotels, including 123 under development, across four continents, 13 countries and more than 150 locations. IHCL is listed on the BSE and NSE and is India’s largest hospitality company by market capitalization.

Its wider portfolio includes Taj, SeleQtions, a named collection of hotels; Tree of Life, a collection of private escapes; Vivanta upscale hotels; Gateway full-service properties; and Ginger, positioned in the lean-luxe segment. Brand Finance ranked Taj the World’s Strongest Hotel Brand 2024 and India’s Strongest Brand 2024.

The agreement puts IHCL deeper in one of the world’s fastest-growing aviation markets and gives AAHL a hospitality-led component for its Airport City pipeline. Whether that scale produces attractive returns will depend on opening dates, pricing, occupancy and operating costs that neither company has yet disclosed.