The Adani Group has taken over operations of the Jaipur International Airport from the Airports Authority of India (AAI). The airport has been leased to the group by the government of India for 50 years. For the past two months, authorities from the Adani group have been viewing works at the airport. The Ahmedabad-based conglomerate had delayed acquiring Jaipur Airport and asked for a six-month extension till December 2021, indicating force majeure due to the covid-19 pandemic. But, the government has granted it three months to acquire the management. Jaipur airport is the 11th busiest airport in India in daily scheduled flight services. Situated in the southern suburb of Sanganer, the airport was awarded the status of an international airport on 29 December 2005. The civil apron can hold 14 aircraft and the new terminal building can manage around 1,000 passengers at a time. Airport director J S Balhara gave a symbolic key of the airport to Chief Airport Officer Adani Jaipur International Limited Vishnu Jha in the presence of other authorities. The firm acquired the airport at midnight on Monday. Balhara told the media that the firm will work on the operations, management and development of the Jaipur airport via PPP mode. Recently, Adani Enterprises arm Adani Airport Holdings (AAHL) acquired management control of a series of airports in India involving the Mumbai International Airport Limited (MIAL). Gautam Adani had told the media that their airport expansion plan is aimed to help unite their nation’s Tier 1 cities with the Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities in a hub and spoke model. It is crucial to allowing a greater equalisation of India’s urban–rural divide, and making international travel seamless and smooth. AAHL became the largest airport operator in the world after it procured a controlling stake in MIAL earlier this year. Adani Group has also attained competitive proposals to operate the airports in Guwahati, Mangalore, Ahmedabad, Lucknow and Thiruvananthapuram. Image SourceAlso read: Adani Group takes up operations of Guwahati Airport