Government expected to give 11 more airports on lease, soon

Government is planning to lease out 11 airports for 50 years. These airports will be given on lease to private players for redevelopment and their subsequent operations by these players.  Leasing of airports is a public-private partnership method. It reduces government’s investment in developing existing airports. At the same time, private players, who have competency in airport operations, get the chance to do so. The lessee will give the government an annual lease rent during the period of the lease. At the end of the lease term, the airports are handed back to the lessor, which is the government in this case.

Government is using the leasing out of airport policy to develop more airports in smaller Tier-II and Tier-III cities. It will be interesting to see how much interest is shown by private players to the leasing auctions of the government. Air travel is still to recover full from the massive disruption of Covid lockdowns. 400 million passengers are expected to travel annually in airlines in India, over the next five years. A large part of this travel is concentrated in large Tier-1 cities.