The Authority of India (AAI) has received passenger fees from the private partners running the six airports that were leased out in 2019 totalling approximately Rs 2,032 crore as of June of current year.
“Private partners of these airports have paid approximately Rs 2,032 crore to AAI as Per Passenger Fee (PPF) till June 2024. AAI has also received an amount of approximately Rs 2,758 crore from the private partners of these six airports in the form of upfront fee towards the capital expenditure incurred by AAI at these airports,” Minister of State for Civil Aviation Murlidhar Mohol told Lok Sabha on Thursday.
Since 2019, the Adani group has been the tenant of the airports located in Lucknow, Ahmedabad, Mangaluru, Jaipur, Guwahati and Thiruvananthapuram under a Public Private Partnership (PPP).
He claims that these airports were leased for 50 years in order to improve operations, administration, and development. Additionally, the minister stated in a written response that 25 AAI airports have been designated for leasing between 2022 and 2025 in accordance with the National Monetisation Pipeline (NMP). However, this is an indicative list and finalisation is subject to further assessment.
At present, the nation has 157 airports that are in operation and have the ability to accommodate over 530 million passengers annually. The authorisation to provide maintenance training is held by 57 Aircraft Maintenance Engineering (AME) training facilities.
In a different written response, Mohol stated that 16,092 aeroplane maintenance engineer licences were granted by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) between January 1 and August 1 of this year.
(with inputs from PTI)
