Adani Airport Holdings has raised $1 billion in primary equity funding, bringing in Temasek and BlackRock-managed funds among its new investors.

The investor consortium, which also includes Alpha Wave Global and Premji Invest, will collectively own about 5.54 percent of the company.

The deal values Adani’s airport business at roughly $18 billion on a pre-money basis.

Funds raised will go toward modernising airport infrastructure, building Adani Airport City ecosystems, and expanding passenger and cargo-related businesses.

AAHL operates eight airports in India, including Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport, accounting for about 25 percent of the country’s passenger traffic.

The capital infusion is expected to support development of integrated ‘Adani Airport City’ ecosystems, combining aeronautical and non-aeronautical commercial infrastructure around its airport sites.

Alpha Wave Global, Premji Invest, Temasek and BlackRock-managed funds are among the world’s largest institutional and sovereign-linked investors, giving the deal significant credibility in global infrastructure markets.

The deal comes as India debates whether to cap the number of airports a single private operator can control, a policy question that has drawn scrutiny of Adani’s expanding airport portfolio.

Part of the funding is earmarked for expanding capacity to handle nearly 200 million passengers annually across the group’s airport network.

This transaction ranks among the largest primary equity investments by financial institutions into India’s airport infrastructure sector to date.

Adani Airport Holdings Limited manages eight airports across India, including Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport, and accounts for about 25 percent of India’s passenger traffic.

AAHL also handles roughly 33 percent of India’s air cargo volumes, making it the largest private airport operator in the country by traffic share.

The new investors will subscribe to shares in three tranches, with the final tranche expected to complete by July 2027.

The $18 billion pre-money valuation places Adani Airports among the most highly valued airport infrastructure businesses in Asia.

Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport, Mumbai, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0

Air India was caught up in UK air traffic chaos on Tuesday after a technical failure at NATS disrupted flight operations across the country.

The outage triggered more than 1,000 flight cancellations in the UK on Tuesday, with 177 more flights cancelled for Wednesday.

Heathrow, a key hub for India-UK travel, was among the hardest-hit airports, alongside Gatwick, London City, Luton, Edinburgh and Bristol.

Air India confirmed the technical problem forced it to divert, delay or cancel multiple flights scheduled to and from UK airports.

NATS said its systems were operating normally again, but warned that recovery from the backlog across the aviation network would take time.

Heathrow, Gatwick, London City, Luton, Edinburgh and Bristol airports all reported disrupted flight operations during the outage, with Heathrow the most severely affected.

NATS said recovery from the backlog across the aviation network would take time even after the underlying technical issue was resolved.

This is not the first time a NATS technical failure has caused mass disruption to UK air travel, with similar system outages having grounded flights in the past.

Air India was among several international carriers, alongside UK domestic airlines, affected by the disruption at Heathrow and other British airports.

Passengers travelling to and from the UK were advised to check their flight status directly with airlines given the scale and unpredictability of the disruption.

NATS, formerly known as National Air Traffic Services, is the primary air traffic control provider for UK airspace, handling flight data processing for arrivals and departures across the country’s busiest airports.

September is a peak month for Indian student travel to the UK, meaning the timing of the outage was particularly disruptive for passengers flying to British universities for the new academic term.

NATS chief executive Martin Rolfe said the exact cause of the technical failure was still being investigated, though the system was confirmed to be operating normally again after the fix.

London Heathrow Airport Terminal 5, Wikimedia Commons, CC0

Nearly 3,000 flights were delayed across Asia on Tuesday as ash from the erupting Mount Anak Krakatau volcano disrupted regional air travel, including at Delhi and Mumbai.

The region-wide toll stood at 2,927 delays and 584 cancellations, spanning airports in India, Japan, China and Indonesia.

Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport logged 177 delays and 4 cancellations; Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport logged 245 delays and 3 cancellations.

IndiGo recorded 258 delayed flights and 9 cancellations, while Air India recorded 114 delays and 2 cancellations.

Mount Anak Krakatau, in the Sunda Strait, began erupting on September 4 and remains at Alert Level III as of the latest assessment.

As of September 7, Indonesian volcanological authorities kept Anak Krakatau at Alert Level III, warning that the risk of further eruptions remained high and that airports were reopening in phases rather than all at once.

Etihad Airways and SpiceJet were among the international and domestic carriers reporting delays on services to and from Delhi and Mumbai during the disruption.

Volcanic ash poses a direct safety hazard to jet engines, which is why aviation authorities impose ground restrictions and altitude diversions rather than allowing aircraft to fly through affected airspace.

Garuda Indonesia and Batik Air, the two largest carriers based in the affected region, reported the heaviest cancellation rates of any airline tracked in the disruption.

Airlines advised passengers travelling through affected hubs to check flight status directly with carriers before heading to the airport, as ash-related restrictions were being updated through the day.

Mount Anak Krakatau, in Indonesia’s Sunda Strait, began erupting on September 4, triggering a five-day aviation shutdown that closed eight Indonesian airports and stranded more than 270,000 passengers.

Jakarta’s Soekarno-Hatta International Airport recorded the highest number of cancellations in the region, with 207 flights called off as ash plumes drifted over the airspace.

Interior of Terminal 3, Indira Gandhi International Airport, Wikimedia Commons, CC0