New Delhi: The Airports Authority of India (AAI) will start the third stage of airport privatisation process of about ten airports from April this year, said Civil Aviation secretary Pradeep Singh Kharola on Thursday.
"AAI is examining giving non-profitable airport and profit-making airports as packages. We could see six to ten airports being taken up," said Pradeep Singh Kharola, Civil Aviation secretary.
Kharola added the government will this time club small, loss-making airports with profitable ones that bidders wish to acquire and they will be given to the private sector for 50 years.
The Civil Aviation Secretary said that budget 2021-22 had provided an increase of 35 per cent at Rs 600 crore for the regional connectivity scheme.
On February 1, while presenting Budget 2021, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman had said that the government is planning to put the next lot of airports for privatisation, that will help monetise these assets for operations and management.
Notably, Adani Group has recently won the concession agreements for six airports- Jaipur, Guwahati, Ahmedabad, Mangaluru, Lucknow and Thiruvananthapuram.
Kharola said that currently there is 60-65 per cent utilisation of the allowed 80 per cent limit in domestic flights and the government is constantly monitoring the air traffic levels to ensure that there is enough supply in the market to match the demand.
The international flight operations continue to be suspended since March 2020 due to the pandemic. However, flight through Vande Bharat mission and air bubble arrangements are being operational in India to other countries.
