The civil aviation ministry is keen to carry out a makeover of the Airports Authority of India (AAI). Civil aviation minister, Praful Patel, has said AAI will be corporatised by amending the AAI Act in Parliament.

Currently, AAI is an authority and amending the Act will transform the company. AAI has 35 non-metro airports, which are yet to be developed to handle air traffic. “By March 2010, the AAI Act will be amended. We are also looking at listing the company to gather funds, ” said Patel, adding that private infrastructure firms, including those involved in the modernisation of airports are listed companies and have a good standing in the financial market.

AAI is modernising major airports in Kolkata and Chennai and also has huge properties, including land and other assets across the country. It currently manages 126 airports, 11 of them being international ones. AAI had recently planned to issue infrastructure bonds worth Rs 5,000 crore for the renovation of airfields. Besides, airlines collectively have to pay over Rs 5,000 crore as airport usage fee.

In 2006, the airports authority had planned to spend around Rs 6,440 crore for the modernisation of 35 airports, including those at Ahmedabad, Amritsar, Guwahati, Jaipur, Lucknow, Patna, Port Blair and Pune.

However, there were reports that the modernisation of these airports would be shelved following a reduction in revenue.Recently, the authority has also started charging a user development fee to passengers at various airports, ranging from Rs 150 to Rs 300.

Meanwhile, Patel, in a written reply to a question in Parliament, said that there are no plans of retrenchment and early retirement scheme for the 52,042 employees working in the civil aviation sector under the ministry.

Patel also said the civil aviation ministry was also open to a dialogue with the airlines that had threatened to suspend operations on August 18, against what they term high fuel costs and an unreasonable airport usage fee, which increases the operating costs of the airlines. However, airlines decided revoked their decision to suspend operations following a notice from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation.