The Indian government is planning to privatise 13 of the airports under the Airports Authority of India (AAI) by the end of March 31, 2021. Sanjeev Kumar, AAI Chairman, told ET in an interview that the airports' body has sent the aviation ministry a list of 13 airports that have will be bid out on public-private partnership (PPP).
"The model to be followed for bidding would be the per-passenger revenue model. This model has been used earlier and is successful and the Jewar airport (in Greater Noida) was also bid out on the same model," he said.
Kumar is confident that all the airports will get bidders because the effects of the pandemic are short-term while the airport is on offer for 50 years.
The reason why the AAI is giving up control and privatising these airports is so that it can focus on developing new ones. The private players will focus on these airports and make them profitable for the long run. At the same time, AAI will focus on developing airports in areas that are not the attraction for the private sector because there might not be enough profits.
