The Civil Aviation Ministry on Thursday informed the Lok Sabha that Adani Enterprises has been given three more months to take over Thiruvananthapuram, Jaipur and Guwahati airports.

The initial deadline for taking these airports under Public Private Partnership (PPP) was July. Extension means handing over will need to be completed by September.

“Concessionaire has issued force majeure event notices citing Covid-19 second wave outbreak and requested for 6 months extension of time. AAI (Airport Authority of India) has granted 3 months extension in this regard,” Civil Aviation Minister, Jyotiraditya Scindia, said in a written reply in response to question raised by TMC MP Mahua Mitra.

According to the concession agreements signed on January 19 by AAI, the concessionaires are required to achieve COD (commercial operation date) and financial close within 180 days from the date of signing of the agreement.

After its decision of leasing out airports for operation, management and development under PPP, AAI released a request for proposal (RFP) on December 14, 2018 through global competitive bidding wherein per passenger fee is the bidding parameter.

Bid opening

The technical bids opened on February 16, 2019, and the financial bids of the qualified bidders opened on February 25-26, 2019. Adani Enterprises won all the bids by quoting highest per passenger fee for all the three airports —Thiruvananthapuram, Guwahati and Jaipur. On August 19 last year, the Union Cabinet approved the proposal of leasing out the airports to Adani for a period of 50 years.

Scindia also said that there is no loss to AAI due to delay in handing over of the airports. Prior to the handing over of Mangaluru, Ahmedabad and Lucknow airports, AAI continued to receive the revenue from these airports. The revenue from the remaining three airports — Guwahati, Jaipur and Thiruvananthapuram — will continue to be received by AAI till handing over of these airports to the Concessionaire. Further, as per the Concession Agreement, the concession period of 50 years commences from the date of takeover of the airport by the Concessionaire

Financial Health of Airports

In response to another question, the Minister of State for Civil Aviation, General (Retired) VK Singh said that about 75 per cent of AAI-operated airports are incurring losses. As on date, there are 136 airports being operated by AAI alone or in joint venture, of which 24 are categorised as major (one having an annual capacity of 35 lakh passengers). Among the airports making profit, Patna, Srinagar and Bagdogra are the important ones.

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