Govt. Stares at
massive losses in running Airports
Pune, Kolkata & Goa only saving grace
Private airports not making big bucks either
Barring Pune, Kolkata and Goa, most of the 124 airports under the command and control of Airport Authority of India (AAI) have been running at massive losses for the past five years together.
The AAI's accumulated losses during the past five years are a whopping Rs 5285 crores. Had Pune in Maharashtra, Kolkata in West Bengal and Goa not made profits during this period, losses could have sky-rocketed. Even these three airports were in losses during 2020-21 and 2021-22 due to Covid pandemic. But they made massive profits from April 1, 2017 to March 31, 2020.
But for Pune, all AAI run airports in Maharashtra including Akola, Jalgaon, Juhu, Kolhapur and Solapur have incurred losses consistently.
Some of the popular travel destinations including Tirupati, Amritsar, Chandigarh, Hyderabad, Jodhpur,Shimla, Srinagar and the like, are all in losses for the past five years.
The data accessed showed that even 14 privately run airports also made losses to the tune of Rs 1847 crores during 2020-21 after making profits during 2018-2020.
The government had cut its losses by bringing in private operators. But these operators, after being in profits initially, also suffered losses lately. With traffic rising post-Covid, the government is planning to privatize 25 more airports including Nagpur during 2023-25.
Out of the 10 operationalized greenfield airports, Durgapur, Kannur, Sindhudurg and Mopa have been developed by respective state governments with the help of private developers. The development of new greenfield airports at Jewar, Bhogapuram, Navi Mumbai, Karaikal and Dabra are also being offered to private operators.
