India, July 25 -- Airports are becoming more than places where passengers board flights. Land surrounding a busy airport can support offices, hotels, hospitals, shopping centres, warehouses and logistics facilities. Businesses pay for connectivity, while developers benefit from passenger traffic that already exists instead of having to create footfall from scratch.

This is the market GMR Airports is trying to scale. Its portfolio has roughly 2,510 acres with development potential, including around 1,500 acres at Hyderabad, 294 acres at Bhogapuram, 247 acres at Nagpur, 232 acres at Goa, 230 acres at Delhi and about 10 acres in Greece.

However, GMR is not entering ordinary residential real estate. It plans to build commercial districts ...