Aviation Ministry to present proposal on 'further airport privatisation' to Cabinet on Wed: Puri

Ministry of Civil Aviation will place a proposal for "furr" privatisation of airports before Union Cabinet on Wednesday, Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said.

In first round of privatisation under Narendra Modi dispensation, airports in Luckw, Ahmedab, Jaipur, Mangaluru, Thiruvananthapuram and Guwahati were cleared for operation, manment and development through public-private partnership (PPP) model in February 2019.

Subsequently, Airports Authority of India (AAI) h in September 2019 recommended Civil Aviation Ministry to privatise airports in Amritsar, Varanasi, Bhubaneswar, Indore, Raipur and Trichy.

Puri said during a webinar on Tuesday, "We are going to Cabinet tomorrow for furr airport privatisation. We have got many more airports lined up, dozens of m, and 100 new airports we will build between w and 2030." AAI, which works under Ministry of Civil Aviation, owns and mans more than 100 airports across country.

ani Enterprises h won rights to run six airports -- Luckw, Ahmedab, Jaipur, Mangaluru, Thiruvananthapuram, and Guwahati -- after a competitive bidding process in February 2019.

ani Enterprises signed concessionaire agreement with AAI for three airports - Ahmedab, Mangaluru and Luckw - on February 14, 2020. It is yet to sign concessionaire agreement for or three airports.

In June this year, AAI gave three more months to ani group to take over manment of airports of Ahmedab, Mangaluru and Luckw due to COVID-19 scenario.

This means ani group, which was expected to take over operations, manment and development of three airports by August 12, can w take over airports by vember 12.

Around 94,000 passengers travelled through domestic flights on Monday, Puri said at aforementioned webinar organised by industry body Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).

Prior to COVID-19 pandemic, around 3 lakh passengers per day travelled domestically in India, he said.

"By time we reach Diwali, we would be 50-55 per cent of our pre-COVID figures. By end of year, we will revive civil aviation to pre-COVID levels," he mentioned.

After a gap of two months due to coronavirus-triggered lockdown, India resumed domestic passenger flights on May 25, albeit in a curtailed manner.

Currently, airlines in India are permitted to operate 45 per cent of ir pre-COVID domestic flights.

International passenger flights continue to remain suspended in country.

However, since July, India has signed separate bilateral air bubble agreements with countries like US, UAE, Germany and France under which airlines of both countries in a pact can operate international flights with certain restrictions.

aviation sector has been hit hard due to COVID-19 pandemic. Since March this year, all airlines in India have taken cost-cutting measures like pay cuts, leave without pay and firings of employees.