The year of next set of privatisation

As the next phase of airport privatisation begins, it is now a combination of larger airports and very small airports which will be offered as a package to ensure that more airports can be privatised.

The year 2021 saw 838.14 lakh passengers fly on domestic routes in India, showed data released by regulator Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA). While this is a jump of 33.1 per cent over 2020, it still pales in front of 2019 when traffic stands at 1441.71 lakh passengers! While this is a good news for airlines, this also is good news for airports whose only source of revenue is airline passengers. While the revenue may come from airlines and passengers in the form of aero and non-aero revenue, the ultimate payer in this case has always been the passenger.

The race will be primarily led by GMR and Adani's to bag as many as they can. In this race, not only does the count matter but what also matters is the traffic. The first phase of privatisation had seen both greenfield and brownfield setups at Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru and Hyderabad. This was based on a revenue sharing model. The next phase has now moved to a per passenger charge as part of privatisation.

As the next phase of airport privatisation beacons, it is now a combination of larger airports and very small airports, which will be offered as a package to ensure that more airports can be privatised. The major ones see traffic in the range of 1.61 million passengers per annum to up to 3.75 million passengers per annum. Except one, all have seen a traffic growth of over 15 per cent between FY17 and FY20.

WHICH ARE THE AIRPORTS UP FOR PRIVATISATION?

A total of 13 airports are up for privatisation. But the way the deal is being structured, it involves six main airports, which are clubbed with one or two non-major ones, and being bid out together.