Of the 82 operational airports in the country, only 19 have licences granted by the civil aviation ministry. As per International Civil Aviation Organisation rules, airports are required to have a licence so that they can handle flight operations, especially international ones. The country has a total of 127 airports.
Airports Authority of India (AAI) has put some of these 19 airports on the auction block for privatization. Most of these airports have been registering major profits. The list of 19 licensed airports includes all the privatised airports and many of the airports under the control of the AAI.
?After the requirements for licencing of airports came about two years ago, it was felt that AAI-controlled airports do not need licences immediately as they have been functioning since inception without a licence. Priority was given to the private airports after which other AAI airports are being granted licence depending on the importance,? a DGCA official said.
?Due to limited manpower, it is taking time for the airports to be licenced but the process is on,? a ministry of civil aviation official said. ?The rest of the airports will be licenced after the process is finished,?he added.
According to the licencing policy, AAI has to now apply for licences and also pay a licence fee,? the ministry official said.
With more and more airports being developed, the continuous privatisation of existing airports and the new policy of the minister to have an airport at every 50 kilometres, the licencing requirements will also rise, an analyst said.
Among the licenced airports are the major airports in Delhi, Mumbai, Cochin, Trivandrum, Kolkata and Chennai. Other licenced airports include Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Coimbatore, Lucknow, Jaipur, Guwahati, Varanasi, Amritsar, Nagpur, Aizwal (Lengpui) and Calicut. The JSW Vijaynagar Aerodrome in Karnataka is also among the licenced airports.
The Sri Satya Sai Airport in Puttaparthy, Andhra Pradesh which was recently put up for sale is also a licenced airport.
