AAI-run airports saw losses of Rs 7,600 crore in last 3 fiscals

A large majority of the 136 airports run by the Airports Authority of India (AAI) incurred losses to the tune of Rs 7,599.31 crore in the last three fiscals running with the Covid-19 hit 2020-21 being the worst-hit.

However between 2018-19 and 2020-21, according to government statistics, a handful of airports managed to earn profit, which ran into Rs 2,454.77 crore, during this period.

16 out of 136 airports, including those in PPP mode, managed profits in 2018-19 while 25 airports showed profits in 2019-20. However, this number dropped to a dismal four -- Bareilly, Port Blair, Kanpur Chakeri and Kandla -- in the pandemic-hit 2020-21.

The number of airports whose accounts were in the red stood at 102 in 2018-19 followed by 92 and 113 in the next two fiscals. Eighteen airports in 2018-19 and 19 each in the next two fiscals did not report profit or loss.

An analysis of the statistics tabled by the Ministry of Civil Aviation in Lok Sabha earlier this month showed that the highest loss was in the last fiscal when 102 airports together reported a loss of Rs 3,855.75 crore while four airports reported profit, which was a meagre Rs 8.4 crore.

Officials attribute it to the shutting of airports for months owing to lockdown as well as low volume of travel due to pandemic restrictions, leading to low revenue.

In 2019-20, airports had shown improved performance compared to 2018-19. 25 airports recorded profits of Rs 1,292.07 crore during 2019-20, while others amassed a loss of Rs 1,372.35 crore, the least for the past three fiscal years.

In 2018-19, the loss was Rs 2,731.21 crore (in 102 airports) while the profits by 16 airports was Rs 1,254.30 crore.

The Mumbai airport, a joint venture in which AAI has 26 per cent stake, had incurred the highest loss (Rs 331.64 crore) last fiscal followed by the Delhi airport, where also the AAI has 26 per cent stake, which reported Rs 317.41 crore loss.

Incidentally, Mumbai airport had reported profits in both the previous financial years Rs 96.1 crore and Rs 2.54 crore. Delhi had a profit of Rs 13.15 crore in 2019-20 while it was in loss of Rs 111.77 crore in 2018-19.

Chennai reported a massive loss of Rs 278.63 crore in the last fiscal, though it had reported profits of Rs 5.35 crore and Rs 22.65 crore in the previous fiscal.

The airports with huge loss in last fiscal also included Amritsar (Rs 126.65 crore), Thiruvananthapuram (Rs 125.11 crore), Goa (Rs 118.04 crore), Ahmedabad (Rs 109.89 crore) and Varanasi (Rs 100.93 crore). Thirvananthapuram, Goa and Ahmedabad had reported profits in the two previous fiscal years while Varanasi had losses in its books in both the years.

The list did not have the details of Bengaluru airport in which the AAI has only 13 per cent stake.

In Karnataka, the list showed, airports in Mangaluru (Rs 55.48 crore), Hubballi Rs 26.14 crore, Belagavi Rs 21.12 crore, Mysuru Rs 4.31 crore and Kalaburagi Rs 4.23 crore also showed losses in 2020-21.

The Ministry of Civil Aviation has said that the AAI has recently awarded six airports in Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Lucknow, Guwahati and Thiruvananthapuram and Mangaluru for Operations, Management and Development under Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode for 30 years.

As per the National Monetisation Pipeline, it also said, 25 AAI airports have been earmarked for asset monetisation between 2022 and 2025.

These are Bhubaneswar, Varanasi, Amritsar, Trichy, Indore, Raipur, Kozhikode, Coimbatore, Nagpur, Patna, Madurai, Surat, Ranchi, Jodhpur, Chennai, Vijayawada, Vadodara, Bhopal, Tirupati, Hubballi, Imphal, Agartala, Udaipur, Dehradun and Rajahmundry.