Airports are truly the gateways to our
country. They depict the face of our culture, facilities, ethos and
economics. All of us agree that they need to be modernized vis-a-vis more
facilitation to the travelling passengers and all the operating airlines
who are our users.
As of now Airports Authority Of India
(AAI ) is managing 126 airports including 13 International ,9 customs and
79 domestic airports in India .In the year 2004-05, AAI, which represents
a monopoly situation in India ,generated a revenues of approximately
Rs.2700crores and a profit before tax of Rs.600 crores. Of this total
amount, nearly 60% of the total revenues come from Mumbai and Delhi
Airports. That is, about Rs.1600 crores come from Mumbai and Delhi
Airports out of the total 2700 crores.
In such a scenario, there were two
options left with the government. Either asking AAI to modernise Delhi and
Mumbai Airports which were the most used airports in India or modernise
these airports by involving private sector participation. AAI was
financially capable to modernize these airports with a balance sheet size
of around Rs.3000 crores in terms of net worth. But the Govt. of India
chose to ask AAI to go beyond and develop the rest of the remaining
airports with it and involve private sector participation for developing
Delhi and Mumbai Airports.
The modernisation of Delhi Airport was
awarded to the Hyderabad based GMR group which has a tie-up with Fraport
and Malaysia airports .The task of modernising the Mumbai Airport has been
awarded to another consortium, the GVK group, which has a tie-up with
South Africa Airports.
What is the position of AAI in this new
scenario? The AAI as per the shareholders agreements remain 26%
shareholder in the new entity. So, it obviously gains 26% of the profits
that the new airport ventures will make .But more than this ,46% of the
revenues Of the New Delhi Airport and 38% of the revenues of the new
Mumbai Airport are to accrue to AAI as per the terms and conditions of the
joint venture. Financial Analysts predict that the revenue of Delhi and
Mumbai Airports in the new scenario are likely to grow at the rate of 20%
per year for the next 5 years .In case AAI itself was at the helm of the
affairs instead of the consortium, this growth could have been used
systematically to sustain the growth of the rest remaining airports in the
order of their importance.
But the path has been chosen by our
able leadership. Let us all work positively and shape the modernization of
our airports for our customers to match the standards of the best in the
world.
A. Sanyal
