Civil aviation ministry to privatise 25 more AAI airports across India

The Minister of State for Civil Aviation, V K Singh, informed the Lok Sabha that the government had selected 25 airports operated by the Airports Authority of India (AAI) for monetisation under the National Monetisation Pipeline in the next four years.

These airports are Kozhikode, Coimbatore, Madurai and Trichy. The Kozhikode airport is located 28 km away from the city. It has extended its runway to 2,700 m. This airport is among the third tabletop airports in India.

The government has selected those airports which have annual passenger traffic of over four lakh. In 2019-20, the Kozhikode airport had passenger traffic of 32,29,910.

In 2020 after Air India overshot the runway and plunged into a 35-foot gorge, killing 21 people and 84 injured, operations of the wide-bodies aircraft were suspended. It was banned from 2015, and the Directorate of Civil Aviation issued a no-objection certificate (NOC) with stringent conditions in 2018.

Former Director-General of the Civil Aviation, E K Bharat Bhushan, said that the airport disinvestment could improve efficiency. It can also accelerate development in Malabar. The short runway of the Kozhikode airport is the drawback, and its land acquisition has been challenging.

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