Airport privatization 3.0 to take off post election
Mint. The state-owned airport operator also plans to invite bids for operation, management and development of 13 airports, including Bhubaneswar, Trichy, Indore, Raipur, Amritsar and Varanasi, in public-private-partnership mode, the officials added. “The plan is to be implemented after the new government takes over in June.
Along with Bengaluru, AAI will look at the plan to sell its stake in Hyderabad airport as well," one of the officials said. AAI is planning to club these six airports with seven loss-making small airports – Kushinagar, Gaya, Hubballi, Aurangabad, Jabalpur, Tirupati, and Kangra. “Under the first step,AAI is likely to float a request for proposal and invite bids for leasing 13 airports for a period of 50 years.
The plans for divestment of stake and public-private partnerships have been in the pipeline for some time now but we now expect the implementation this year," he added. The six airports are among the top 20 airports operated by AAI in terms of passenger traffic. The plan is to target infrastructure growth across both major and minor airports, the official said.
“Given that the Indian airports have huge growth potential for non-aero revenues when compared to their global counterparts, given the high growth in passengers and spend per passenger, we expect the growth to remain strong," said Vinay Kumar G, Vice President & Sector Head - Corporate Ratings, ICRA Ltd said. Plans to privatize about 25 airports and sell AAI’s stake in the airport companies in Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, and Bengaluru are part of the National Monetisation Plan (NMP) announced in September 2021. The aviation sector was expected to contribute 3.5% to the NMP.
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