Industry Odisha Bureau ,Aug 30:The Union government has proposed privatizing eleven more airports through the PPP route. This follows the 2020-21 privatization of six airports located across different regions. It comes twenty years after Delhi and Mumbai became India’s first privatized airports. The proposed airports are notably smaller than those privatized in earlier rounds. This round tests whether the PPP model can succeed beyond major hubs.
The Airports Authority of India owns and operates 122 airports nationwide today. AAI had also previously managed the eight airports that were already privatized. Two large private operators, Adani Group and GMR Group, run remaining airports. Adani operates eight airports including Mumbai, while GMR runs eight including Delhi. All these operators currently generate profits at the operational level, records show.
AAI posted a net profit of ₹7,233 crore during 2024-25, unlike GMR Aero. That profit came on revenues of ₹20,648 crore, a thirty-five percent margin. Yet AAI’s capital expenditure of ₹5,568 crore cannot meet massive sector needs. The Noida airport’s first phase alone reportedly cost around ₹11,200 crore recently.
Private participation can also modernize airports and their surrounding commercial infrastructure significantly. Delhi and Mumbai illustrate how privatization transformed airports and nearby service ecosystems. AAI remains a financial stakeholder even after handing airports to private operators. Delhi and Mumbai were awarded on effectively sixty-year leases to private operators. AAI holds a 26% stake and also receives an annual revenue share there. Those six 2020-21 airports were each handed over on fifty-year leases instead. They included Ahmedabad, Guwahati, Jaipur, Lucknow, Mangaluru and Thiruvananthapuram, AAI records show. For those airports, AAI instead receives a fixed fee per passenger annually. The proposed 11 airports will likely again follow a similar fifty-year structure. AAI would again collect a passenger fee under that proposed arrangement too.
Income from privatized airports first crossed thirty percent of AAI’s revenue in 2012-13. That share later fell after 2017-18 as agreements were redrawn amid disruptions. The Covid-19 pandemic further disrupted aviation and depressed privatized-airport income quite considerably. That share has since recovered fully, standing at 35.7% during the 2024-25 financial year.
The figures suggest privatized airports remain financially significant within AAI’s broader revenue base. Whether smaller airports replicate this success remains the central open question now. Much depends on private investment, passenger growth and effective overall airport management. The government has not yet disclosed further structural details publicly, officials indicated.
