Even though the increasing number of passenger airlines is making new records every month in the country, the Govt. owned airports are not getting much benefit from it. According to data received from the Ministry of Civil Aviation, 92 out of 107 active airports owned & operated by the Airports Authority of India are in the deficit. Only 15 airports which are situated in the major cities are in profits. It is a matter of relief for the government that the profits earned by these 15 airports are more than the total losses of the remaining 92 airports.
There are a total of 126 airports in the country. Out of these, three airports in Delhi, Mumbai, and Hyderabad are operated under private-public partnership. The Airports Authority of India operates the remaining 123 airports. Out of these, 15 airports including Chennai, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, and Lucknow are among those who are making profits. The remaining 92 airports in Indore, Bhopal, Mangaluru, and Raipur are running in very deficit. The highest profits are from Chennai Airport, which made profits of Rs 455.4 crore in the year 2017-18.
However, this profit is less than 25 percent from the last year’s profit of Rs 605.2 crore. Kolkata airport is in the second rank in terms of earning profits. This airport has earned Rs 411.1 crore in the last financial year. The Mangalore airport is facing the biggest loss with Rs.74 crores in the last financial year. The Safdarjung airport of Delhi is in second place with a loss of Rs.71 crores.
Emphasis on increasing passenger numbers
The current Government which came into power in the year 2014, has given special emphasis on increasing the number of passengers. Among these efforts, the country’s most promising was UDAN (Ude Desh ka Aam Nagrik) scheme. This has led to the launch of airlines in smaller cities. Due to these efforts of the government, the numbers of domestic airlines increased from 7 crore (in the year 2014-15) to 11.7 crore in 2017-18. The central government has recently approved the proposal of leasing out of six airports including Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Lucknow, Guwahati, Thiruvananthapuram, and Mangaluru to operate under PPP mode.
Source: Urban Transport News