The classical theory of rents is that in business areas with high footfalls, rents will be high, but products and service will be affordable because of high turnover. The best example of this is the global McDonald’s hamburger chain of restaurants mostly sited in high-rent districts, or to cite a domestic example Woodlands and Udipi restaurants vending idli /dosa. Restaurants that sell the Big Mac are usually sited in high-rent areas, but unit sales of the Big Mac tend to be most affordable. The McDonald’s management ensures that Big Mac prices are equal in all outlets because thin margins on large volumes result in big profits that more than compensate for high rent.

Evidently this logic of high footfalls resulting in low product/service unit prices doesn’t seem to have impressed the managements of the Hyderabad-based GMR and Ahmedabad-based Adani Group who own/manage 11 of the country’s metropolitan airports or their food, beverages and services concessionaries. Menu prices are 4-5x of street bills outside their airports. This despite the number of airline passengers increasing exponentially from 52 million in 2010 to 165 million in 2025. Evidently the GMR and Adani managements who pay high rents advise their lessees/ concessionaires to follow suit, legitimizing scalping and rip-offs. A coffee and sandwich could set you back by Rs.600.

As founder-editor of India’s first two business magazines, your editor is the first champion of free enterprise and highly appreciative of the country’s gleaming airports which were bywords for shabbiness and stink when managed by government in the bad old pre-liberalisation days. But legitimized scalping is giving capitalism/free markets a bad reputation. Recently, racing to catch a flight at the GMR managed Delhi  airport, request for a ride on a vacant golfcart resulted in a demand for Rs.295 per head fare to cover a distance of few hundred yards. Profiting from people’s desperation mirrors the ugly face of capitalism. Raoji, you not only owe a duty of care to your shareholders, but also to your customers.