New Delhi , August 8 The Airports Authority of India (AAI) reported a revenue of ₹6,841 crore in FY22, up 41 per cent over the previous year’s ₹4,867 crore, said VK Singh, Minister of State for Civil Aviation, in the Rajya Sabha on Monday.

According to him, AAI revenues were around ₹12,976 crore in FY18; ₹14,132 crore in FY19 and ₹12,837 crore in FY20.

“Revenue (in the last two years) is commensurate with the growth registered by the aviation sector post Covid-19,” Singh’s response said.

Reformative measures have also been initiated by the Cente, the Minister said. These measures include, AAI taking up the development of new and existing airports with a projected capital expenditure of around ₹25,000 crore in the next five years. The capex plans include construction expansion of terminals expansion and/or strengthening of existing runways, aprons, airport navigation services, infrastructure, control towers and technical blocks etc.

21 greenfield airports

The Public Private Partnership (PPP) airports at Delhi, Hyderabad and Bengaluru are taking up “major expansion projects of around ₹30,000 crore by 2025.

“Additionally, ₹36,000 crore have been planned for investment in the development of new Greenfield airports across the country under PPP mode,” he said.

An ‘in-principle’ approval for setting up of 21 greenfield airports across the country has been granted and so far, eight – one each in Sindhudurg and Shirdi in Maharashtra; Durgapur in West Bengal; Pakyong in Sikkim; Kannur in Kerala; Orvakal in Andhra Pradesh; Kalaburagi in Karnataka and Kushinagar in Uttar Pradesh – are operational.

Under Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS), 425 routes connecting 68 airports (including eight heliports and two water aerodromes) are operational as on July 12, 2022.

This apart, other steps taken include reduction in GST rate to 5 per cent from 18 per cent for domestic Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) services; a conducive aircraft leasing and financing environment has been enabled and domestic airline services have been allowed to operate at full capacity post-Covid.

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