Flighty decision

Reducing the ambit of AERA defies logic

The Cabinet decision earlier this week to shrink the ambit of the 11-year-old Airport Economic Regulatory Authority (AERA) by raising the passenger traffic threshold is an ill-considered move when seen against the expansion of airport privatisation. According to the Cabinet proposal, the AERA Act, 2008, will be amended so that the tariff-setting regulator will be responsible for airports with annual passenger traffic over 1.5 million; all other airports with passenger traffic below that cut-off will be administered by the civil aviation ministry. In one stroke, this takes 17 airports outside the AERA’s purview, leaving it to administer 13.
 
The