Govt may privatise 11 airports by the end of 2025-26: Report

The airport sale come as part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s target to raise ₹47,000 lakh crore from offloading state assets in the financial year 2025-26.

Published on: Mar 17, 2025, 19:20:27 IST

By HT News Desk

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The government may be planning to sell half a dozen loss-making airports by the end of the financial year 2025-26, bundling them with profitable ones to make them more attractive to investors, Bloomberg reported.

Billionaire Gautam Adani is expected to be among the top contenders. His group company Adani Airport Holdings Ltd is currently India's largest airports operator. (Representational Image/Unsplash)

This marks the third privatisation round for airports and it will see a total of 11 airports on offer, said the report.

HT.com cannot independently verify the authenticity of the information contained in the report.

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These 11 airports handled about 13.5 million domestic passengers and 2.4 million international passengers in the nine months from January 25, according to the report, which added that this accounts for about 10% of the total domestic traffic and around 4% of international traffic.

Which airports may be privatised?

The commercially viable Varanasi aerodrome will be bundled with two unprofitable ones which are Kushinagar and Gaya, according to the report.

This is because Gaya, the gateway to Bodh Gaya, which is the place where Buddha attained enlightenment, is struggling to see the same tourist flow as Varanasi which attracts millions of pilgrims. Kushinagar meanwhile, hasn’t seen any passenger traffic since June.

Bhubaneswar and Amritsar airports are to be clubbed with Hubli and Kangra, while Raipur and Tiruchirapalli will be bundled with Aurangabad and Tirupati, respectively, according to the report.

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The airport sales come as part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s target to raise ₹47,000 lakh crore from offloading state assets in the financial year 2025-26 as it looks for revenue sources to reduce its budgetary shortfall to 4.4% of the gross domestic product (GDP).

Billionaire Gautam Adani is expected to be among the top contenders. His group company Adani Airport Holdings Ltd is currently India's largest airports operator, said the report.

The second airport divestment phase saw six airports going to the Adani Group, and it also bought out GVK’s stake

Another bidder may be GMR Airports Ltd, which runs New Delhi’s international airport and a few others. The Delhi airport came under the group during the first divestment phase.

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The state-owned Airports Authority of India (AAI) currently runs these airports and will finalize the plan and seek government approval in a month, according to the report.

The airports will go to whoever bids to share the highest revenue per passenger with AAI to ensure transparency in the sharing of earnings.

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HT News Desk
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