Unfazed by nationwide protests by employees of state-run Airports Authority of India (AAI), the Indian government is vowing to go ahead with the privatisation of the country’s two busiest airports.
Early in February the government selected a group involving Airports Company South Africa to manage and modernise Mumbai airport and a group involving Germany’s Fraport to run and upgrade Delhi airport.
More than 20,000 AAI employees, fearing job losses, walked off the job in protest. But the government insisted the sell-offs would go ahead as they would lead to badly needed improvement works at the two airports, which together handle around 65% of the country’s international air traffic.
The Airports Company South Africa consortium is led by Indian conglomerate GVK while the Fraport team is headed by local consortium GMR Group and includes investment fund IDF and a subsidiary of Malaysia Airports Holdings.
Final contracts will now be negotiated that should see Mumbai and Delhi airports handed over on 30-year leases. Up to 49% of each airport is to be made available to the foreign concerns and 25% to the local investors, while AAI will retain 26% of each facility. ■
Source: Airline Business