AAI likely to lease out 6 more airports, including Varanasi, Amritsar, Bhubaneswar, Trichy under PPP model

The Airport Authority of India (AAI) is likely to lease out six more airports under the public private partnership (PPP) model in the coming months.

“AAI Board in its meeting has recommended for leasing out 6 airports namely Varanasi, Amritsar, Bhubaneswar, Trichy, Indore and Raipur for operation, management and development under PPP,” the ministry of civil aviation told Parliament on Wednesday.

These facilities are managed by state-owned AAI and witnessed traffic between 1.57-4.15 million passengers in FY19.

The ministry had bid out profit-making airports at Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Lucknow, Trivandrum, Guwahati and Mangalore in February 2019 on the basis of highest per-passenger fee (PPF) offered to the AAI.

Adani Enterprises had won the rights to operate, manage and develop these airports for a period of 50 years.

Experienced players such as GMR Infra and strategic investors like AMP Capital and National Infrastructure and Investment Fund had also placed bids to acquire these assets.

Unlike the last round, the list for privatisation includes loss-making airports like Indore and Raipur.