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Did you know? Every 9 in 10 AAI airports are running a loss
The Airports Authority of India (AAI) is making losses at 90 percent of the airports it operates, reports Business Standard . This is due to a lack of aviation activity at the airports, with 30 of the 109 loss-making airports under it completely bereft of any aircraft traffic. The government’s regional air connectivity initiative is planned around bringing these airports back into use by subsidising airlines to fly to such locations. Only 13 of the 125 airports under its belt are currently profit making. The AAI earned Rs 10,824 crore as income in the financial year 2016, out of which, a third came from revenues made by private airports. The Delhi International Airport has to pay 45.99 percent of its revenues to AAI, while the Mumbai International Airport shells out 38.7 percent. The public sector entity also receives consession fees of 4 percent of revenues of the Hyderabad and Bengaluru airports. AAI attributes the losses to low traffic at airports which translates into meagre revenues. With revenues at a minimum, the airports always end up with higher expenditures over revenues. It has started focussing on its bigger loss-making airports for now, with hopes that the Centre’s regional connectivity scheme kicks in soon. Profits for AAI in FY16 stood at Rs 2,537 crore. Almost a fifth of its profits, around Rs 560 crore, was given to the Centre as dividend for the same period. Kapil Kaul of aviation consultancy firm CAPA told Business Standard that an urgent restructuring of AAI is essential. Bhopal airport, which has regular flight activity, is the top loss making airport for AAI with a Rs 52.6 crore loss in FY16. Other airports which also contribute to high losses include Amritsar, Aurangabad, Varanasi airports among others. Harrison Phillips Jersey
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