State-owned Airports Authority of India (AAI), which runs more than 100 airports and has been a cash-rich entity that pays a dividend to the government, will likely be in the red at the end of the current fiscal, the government told Parliament.
To run various airports at a time of depressed demand and revenue, the AAI has sought a loan of ₹1,500 crore from the State Bank of India, Minister for Civil Aviation Hardeep Puri told the Lok Sabha.
Payment deferrals
Despite this, it has allowed deferrals in annual payments to be made to it by the four biggest airports in the country — Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad — with which it has a public private partnership agreement.
The government had ordered AAI to pay its entire profit after tax (PAT) as dividend to it from FY18, raising it from 30% of PAT it used to pay earlier. This was despite AAI’s own financial requirement for maintenance and expansion of airports. According to its last annual report, it paid ₹1,780 crore to the government in FY18.
National carrier Air India has also taken a hit and seen its revenue drop to ₹1,531 crore from ₹7,066 crore despite operating 2,600 international flights since May for the repatriation of Indians from around the world.
