Govt likely to take up next round of airport privatisation on Wednesday

Cabinet may clear AAI's proposal to sign pact with Adani Enterprises for three airports

The Union Cabinet on Wednesday is likely to take up the next round of airport privatisation. The Airports Authority of India’s proposal to sign a concession agreement with Adani Enterprises for public-private partnership of airports in Guwahati, Jaipur, and Thiruvananthapuram is lined up for consideration, an official said.

These are part of the six airports won by the Adani group under a competitive bidding process. In February, the group signed a concession agreement with the AAI for managing airports in Ahmedabad, Lucknow and Mangalore but approval regarding the other three was deferred. Privatisation has also been challenged in high courts in Assam and Kerala but a government official said there was no order against the process.

“There is no stay order from courts. A concession agreement can be signed but that would be subject to court order,” said a government official familiar with the matter.

The Ministry of Civil Aviation will place a proposal for further privatisation of airports before the Union Cabinet on Wednesday, minister Hardeep Singh Puri said in a webinar on Tuesday.

“We have got many more airports lined up, dozens of them, and the 100 new airports we will build between now and 2030,” he said. The AAI, which works under the Ministry of Civil Aviation, owns and manages more than 100 airports across the country.

Privatisation of airports, development of maintenance repair and overhaul facilities along with freeing up of defence airspace for passenger aircraft have been proposed as the government’s relief plan to support the aviation sector hit by the pandemic.

Airports Authority of India can earn around Rs 2,000 crore as upfront fee for transferring of assets at six airports to the concessionaire. But the handover of Ahmedabad, Lucknow, and Mangalore airport is still pending as Adani Enterprises sought time to pay an upfront fee of Rs 1,000 crore for the three airports.

Inter-ministerial discussions are underway regarding privatisation of six other airports. These include Amritsar, Varanasi, Bhubaneswar, Indore, Raipur, and Trichy.

Elaborating on the performance of airlines, Puri said at the webinar organised by the CII that around 94,000 passengers travelled in domestic flights on Monday, against 300,000 passengers a day before the pandemic. “By the time we reach Diwali, we would be 50-55 per cent of our pre-Covid figures. By the end of the year, we will revive civil aviation to the pre-Covid levels,” he mentioned.

(With agency inputs)