Adani Group to take over Jaipur, Guwahati and Thiruvananthapuram airports by mid-July

NEW DELHI: The Adani Group will by mid-July take over the Jaipur, Guwahati and Thiruvananthapuram airports for the next 50 years.
The Airports Authority of India (AAI) on Tuesday signed three concession agreements with Adani Airports Ltd for these airports under PPP mode.
The infra major is “required to take up (these three) airports… within 180 days from January 19, 2021,” AAI said in a statement.
The Adani Group had two years ago won bids for six AAI airports and has so far taken over three — Mangaluru (on October 31, 2020), Lucknow (Nov 2, 2020) and Ahmedabad (Nov 7, 2020). It will soon take over Mumbai International Airport Ltd (MIAL), and the upcoming Navi Mumbai Airport, where it is acquiring a controlling stake from outgoing promoter GVK Group.
AAI chairman Arvind Singh said: “It is a significant occasion when we complete this round of signing of concession agreements for three airports under the PPP mode. Looking forward to healthy participation from the private sector in the growth story of Indian civil aviation.”
For Guwahati, Adani Group will pay AAI a per passenger fee of Rs 160 (domestic) and Rs 320 (international). For Jaipur and Thiruvananthapuram airports, AAI will get per passenger fee of Rs 174 and Rs 168 respectively for each domestic passenger and Rs 348 and Rs 336 respectively for international passenger. The per passenger domestic fee will be revised annually.
“The concession fee will be received by AAI after leasing out six airports will be used for the maintenance and development of other brownfield airports and also for further development of regional connectivity scheme and greenfield airports throughout the country,” the AAI statement said.
The Union government's decision to run Thiruvananthapuram airport PPP way had been challenged legally and was upheld. AAI is working on handing over six more airports the PPP way.
With seven functional airports and a greenfield one (at Navi Mumbai) under its belt, the Adani Group will be the biggest private airport operator in India in terms of number of airports handled.
In terms of number of passengers handled, GMR will remain the biggest player for some time as it runs India's biggest airport — Delhi's IGIA. This group has, among others, Hyderabad and the upcoming Mopa airport in Goa in its aviation portfolio.