Airport privatisation to guard against high user charges

The ministry of civil aviation is reviewing management contracts to private operators at six airports in the country, to shield airlines and passengers from high user charges.

“We need to consider our learnings from the airport contracts awarded in the past,” a senior ministry official said.

“One concern raised by stakeholders is the cost of turnaround of an aircraft. The turnaround cost for a jet is around $6,000 at an Indian private airport, whereas it costs $2,300 at Changi (Singapore ) airport. We need to ensure privatisation does not increase the cost of the airport,” he added.

Once the modalities are drawn up, the ministry will take approval from an inter-ministerial group to award management contracts at airports in Chennai, Kolkata, Lucknow, Guwahati, Jaipur and Ahmedabad.

The official added the Airports Authority of India had invested Rs 2,000 crore in upgrading the airports at Kolkata and Chennai. The ministry is evaluating public-private partnership for their management, as well as other models.

The ministry is also looking into the Comptroller and Auditor General’s views on the privatisation of airports in Delhi and Mumbai. “We are looking into these concerns. All this will be debated in the inter-ministerial group,” the official added.

The process to award management contracts for these six airports was initiated last year by the United Progressive Alliance government but was delayed by differences of opinion between the civil aviation ministry, then headed by Ajit Singh, and the Planning Commission over terms of the award.

The ministry now has the broad outlines of the concession agreement and an inter-ministerial group meeting was scheduled on September 4 to clear it. The meeting was postponed as a new secretary, V Somasundaran, assumed office in the civil aviation ministry a day before. A new date is likely to be fixed soon.