This was the view expressed by speakers at a national seminar on "Privatisation Policy: Successes and Failures" organised by the Consulting Enginners Association of India.

Speaking at the seminar, H M Shahul, former chairman, Airports Authority of India (AAI), said that the two state-run carriers had huge losses and were not given the proper autonomy for functioning.

"First, these airlines should be privatised. Then the chairman can be held responsible for losses of the airline" he said.

On the subject of airports, Shahul said that the government can evolve strong regulatory and financial mechanisms for privatising and corporatising airports.

He, however, pointed out that with the limited air traffic at the five international airports, it may not be possible for them to be financially viable.

G S Bhatura,executive director, AAI said that only 12 airports in the country were profitable currently. He also pointed out that galloping staff costs had added to the cost of running the airports.

"It is not going to be easy to increase revenue from these airports, as most of the revenue is aircraft movement linked" he said.

He said that while AAI was making attempts to increase the non-aeronautical revenue this was not going to be an easy task as the quality of passengers was different from that found in other airports.