Which are the airports being privatised?

1. What the government has decided

1.1 The Union government has initiated the third round of airport privatisation.
1.2 In this round, 11 airports owned by the Airports Authority of India (AAI) will be leased to private operators.
1.3 These airports will be offered through five bundled packages, meaning more than one airport will be awarded together.
1.4 The proposal has received in-principle clearance from the Public Private Partnership Appraisal Committee (PPPAC) and is under detailed scrutiny.

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2. Airports included in the current round

2.1 The 11 airports selected are:
Amritsar, Kangra, Varanasi, Kushinagar, Gaya, Bhubaneswar, Hubli, Raipur, Aurangabad, Trichy and Tirupati.
2.2 Each bundle combines metro and non-metro airports so that airports with higher traffic support smaller ones financially.

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3. When bidding will begin

3.1 The bidding process will begin only after final appraisal by PPPAC.
3.2 This will be followed by approval from the Union Cabinet.
3.3 The government plans to invite bids in early 2026.

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4. How these airports were selected

4.1 Airports were shortlisted from AAI airports handling between 0.1 and 1 million passengers annually.
4.2 Selection was based on expected future passenger traffic.
4.3 Investment required for expansion and modernisation was also a key criterion.
4.4 From this group, top-performing airports were chosen for privatisation.

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5. Overall airport privatisation plan and monetisation

5.1 In 2019, the government announced a plan to privatise 25 airports in phases.
5.2 Six airports were privatised earlier and awarded to the Adani Group.
5.3 With the current 11 airports, a total of 17 airports will have been taken up for privatisation.
5.4 The remaining 14 airports will be privatised in later rounds.
5.5 Airport privatisation is part of the National Monetisation Pipeline, which targets ₹6 lakh crore during FY 2022–FY 2025.
5.6 The airport sector target under this pipeline is ₹20,782 crore, around 4% of the total value.
5.7 88.3% of the overall National Monetisation Pipeline target has been achieved.

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6. How the privatisation model has evolved

6.1 Airport privatisation began in 2003 with Delhi and Mumbai airports.
6.2 In these cases, AAI retained a 26% stake, while private operators held 74%.
6.3 Airports were awarded through competitive bidding based on a revenue-sharing model.
6.4 In 2019, the model changed.
6.5 The revenue-sharing model was replaced by a per-passenger fee model.
6.6 Six airports under this model were awarded to the Adani Group.

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7. Why costs and market concentration are a concern

7.1 Concerns have emerged about concentration of control in the airport sector, raising the risk of a duopoly or monopoly.
7.2 Operational stress drew attention after IndiGo cancelled nearly 5,000 flights in early December.
7.3 At Thiruvananthapuram airport, after privatisation, the User Development Fee (UDF) for domestic passengers increased from ₹506 to ₹770.
7.4 The Airport Economic Regulatory Authority (AERA) allowed higher tariffs after identifying under-reporting of projected non-aeronautical revenues.

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8. Capacity expansion and future targets

8.1 Only about 6% of Indians currently travel by air, even though India is the world’s third-largest aviation market.
8.2 The government plans to build 50 new airports in the next five years.
8.3 The total airport network is to be expanded to 163 airports by FY 2026.
8.4 India’s airports are expected to reach a combined passenger-handling capacity of about 850 million passengers annually (mppa) in five years.
8.5 This capacity includes expansion through Navi Mumbai Airport and Noida International Airport.