The Government of India is set to monetise 25 airports managed by the Airports Authority of India (AAI) over the next four years.
Under the recently introduced national monetisation pipeline (NMP), the divestment of AAI’s residual ownership in four airport joint ventures (JVs) is also being considered.
This includes a 26% stake in Mumbai Airport, 26% in Delhi Airport, 13% in Hyderabad Airport and 13% in Bangalore Airport.
Under the management of the AAI, the combined airport assets for monetisation account for 18% of the overall airport assets.
For the financial year 2022-2025, the total value of assets that are being considered for monetisation is estimated at $2.81bn (Rs207.82bn).
Under the NMP, the government has recognised 13 sectors, including airports, which could monetise their brownfield infrastructure assets.
Some of the airports that are being considered for monetisation include Udaipur, Dehradun, Indore, Jodhpur, Vijaywada, and Tirupati.
For the current fiscal year, the AAI has identified six airports in Tier 2/Tier 3 cities, including Amritsar, Raipur and Trichy for monetisation through brownfield PPP models.
PTI quoted the NMP document as saying: “To ensure commensurate development of non-profitable airports along with the profitable airports with the help of private sector investment and participation, pairing /clubbing of smaller airports with each of the six bigger airports and leasing out as a package is being explored.”
Last financial year, six AAI airports, notably Ahmedabad; Lucknow; Mangalore; Guwahati; Jaipur; and Thiruvananthapuram, were leased out to the private sector through a PPP-based model.
Several smaller airports, including Bhubaneswar, Varanasi and Raipur, are being planned to be monetised in the current fiscal while bigger ones, including Chennai and Vadodara, are anticipated to be monetised in the 2023-2024 fiscal year.
In the 2022-23 fiscal year, the eight airports listed for monetisation include Calicut, Coimbatore, Madurai, and Jodhpur.
Airports at Dehradun, Agartala and Udaipur will be taken up in the last stage in the 2024-2025 fiscal year.
The AAI handles 137 airports, including 24 international airports, 103 domestic airports, and ten customs airports.
In a separate development, construction firms engaged by the Zurich AG subsidiary have commenced work at the Noida International Airport site in Uttar Pradesh, India.
In June 2021, the Yamuna International Airport secured $510.27m (Rs37.25bn) in funding from the State Bank of India for the development of the Noida International Airport.
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