Airports Authority of India: Exiting the terminal

Privatisation, tweeted the minister, is a means of raising resources to fulfil the aspirations of citizens without imposing new taxes. However, not many in the aviation industry see it from the lens of Puri.

Besides AAI’s stake sales, the identification of 13 more airports for privatisation is afoot. Last year, in the first round of airport privatisation, the Adani Group, led by billionaire Gautam Adani, bagged the contracts for the airports in Lucknow, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Mangaluru, Thiruvananthapuram, and Guwahati. The Adani Group also went on to acquire controlling interest in Mumbai International Airport Limited (MIAL), the entity which owns and operates the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport, in Mumbai. MIAL also holds 74% equity stake in Navi Mumbai International Airport Limited, which is building a greenfield airport in Navi Mumbai.

Through these acquisitions, the Adani Group has eight airports in its kitty which, according to consultancy firm CAPA India, is a major step in the consolidation of airport operators. “This is the final step of replacing a government monopoly with a private monopoly,” argues Devesh Agarwal, editor, bangaloreaviation. com, an aviation news portal. He is of the opinion that AAI’s stakes in privatised airports, both brownfield and greenfield, are meant to safeguard the interest of passengers in the respective airport companies. As more AAI airports get privatised, going forward, up to 80% of traffic will be handled by PPP (public-private partnership) airports, estimates CAPA India.

At the moment, it looks like a two-horse race emerging in the airport sector between Adani Group and the GMR Group, which owns and operates the country’s busiest airport, Indira Gandhi International Airport, in Delhi, with a passenger traffic of 67.3 million in FY20. The GMR Group also owns and operates the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport at Hyderabad, and is developing a greenfield airport at Mopa, in Goa. It also emerged as the highest bidder to develop, operate, and manage the greenfield Bhogapuram International Airport in Andhra Pradesh.