New Delhi: The Airports Authority of India (AAI) has received concession fee of Rs 710.88 crore from the six airports, including Guwahati and Thiruvananthapuram, that were leased out on public private partnership in the last five years. "Till October 2022, AAI has received concession fees of Rs 710.88 crore from the concessionaires for these six airports," said VK Singh, Minister of State for Civil Aviation in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha. He also added that AAI has taken up the development of new and existing airports with a projected capital expenditure of around Rs 25,000 crore over the period of 2019-20 to 2023-24.
State-owned AAI has leased out six airports at Lucknow, Ahmedabad, Mangaluru, Jaipur, Guwahati and Thiruvananthapuram through an open competitive bidding process in the last five years. They were bid out for better operations, management and development under the Public Private Partnership (PPP). AAI received a one-time upfront payment of Rs 314.03 crore from Ahmedabad and Rs 271.11 crore from Jaipur. The amounts were Rs 602.51 crore from Lucknow, Rs 507.56 crore from Guwahati, Rs 221.88 crore from Mangaluru and Rs 431.97 crore from Thiruvananthapuram.
The upfront payment comprised investment in capital work in progress and investment in regulated asset base, at which these airports were handed over to the concessionaires.
To another query, the minister said the cost of air ticket prices is not directly linked to the airports being managed by the private companies under PPP.
"The Airports Economic Regulatory Authority (AERA) determines the charges at these airports including those leased out by AAI based on its regulatory philosophy of return on investment without differentiating between the PPP airports and state/ AAI-managed airports for all major airports," Singh said.
In a separate written reply, the minister said that the interests of employees deployed at the airport brought under PPP have been fully protected.
"As per the concession agreements with airport operators under PPP, the employee will continue to be posted at respective airport for three years (i.e., one-year joint management period followed by two years deemed deputation period)," Singh said.
"Also, the concessionaire is liable to extend the offer of appointment to minimum 60 percent of employees on terms and conditions not inferior to the existing terms. Subsequently, employees have the option to join the concessionaire or to return to AAI," he added.
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