Around 10 airports to be Privatized in the 3rd Round of Airport Privatization

The government announced that in the third round of airport privatization, a maximum of ten airports will be privatized.

Key Points

• As per the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) Secretary Pradeep Singh Kharola, 6 to 10 airports will be privatized in the third of airport privatization.
• The Airports Authority of India is examining the possibility of selling loss-making airports as well as profitable ones.
• Earlier, the government had approved the privatization of 12 airports in the second round.
• As per the government, approximately 20 to 25 airports in the country can be privatized in the upcoming days.
• Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has also announced in the Union Budget 2021-22, airports in tier 2 and 3 towns and cities will be privatized.
• In FY 2021-2022, 7 port projects of over Rs 2,000 crore will be offered by major ports in a public-private partnership model.

Background

In the first round of privatization of airports, the Adani Group won the contracts for 6 airports — Ahmedabad, Mangaluru, Thiruvananthapuram, Lucknow, Jaipur, and Guwahati. Out of these, 3 airports have been handed over to the Adani group- Ahmedabad, Lucknow, and Mangaluru.

In the second round of airports’ privatization, the AAI has chosen the Bhubaneshwar, Varanasi, Amritsar, Raipur, Indore, and Trichi airports.