Airports to be Sold to Private Firms in Next Three Years

The Minister of State for Civil Aviation V.K. Singh in a reply to the Lok Sabha said on December 9, 2021 that the central government was planning to privatise a total of 25 civil airports in the country in the period 2022 to 2025 as part of the National Monetisation Pipeline. According to the data, the Minister of Civil Aviation V.K. Singh stated that 133 of the 136 airports in the country suffered massive losses due to the Coronavirus pandemic in the period 2020 to 2021. The earnings statistics for 136 airports in India showed losses of 2,882.74 crore in 2020-21, up from 80.18 crore in 2019-20 and 465.91 crore in 2018-19. The most profitable airport in India was Kanpur Chakeri, which earned 6.07 crore. The other three profitable airports were Porbandar, Bareilly and Kandala, which earned 1.54 crore, 0.68 crore and 0.11 crore, respectively. The report showed that Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport was the lowest performer in financial year 2021 with a loss of 384.81 crore whereas Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi suffered a loss of 317.41 crore.