Asset monetisation: AAI to start exiting JV airports soon

New Delhi: The Airports Authority of India (AAI) will soon start exiting the JV airports with the government deciding to divest its stake in them. AAI has 26% stake each in the Delhi and Mumbai JV airports and 13% each in Hyderabad and Bengaluru. Sources say the aviation ministry has moved a Cabinet note, seeking the nod to divest AAI’s stake and the process will start with Bengaluru and Hyderabad first. In the second phase, Mumbai and Delhi may follow.

The AAI board had earlier this month cleared a plan to privatise 13 more airports by clubbing seven small airports with six big ones, which are going to be bid out for running the PPP way. The pairs are: Varanasi with Kushinagar and Gaya, Amritsar with Kangra, Bhubaneswar with Tirupati, Raipur with Aurangabad, Indore with Jabalpur, and Trichy with Hubli. Cabinet note for seeking approval for this is in advanced stages of finalisation,” say sources.

According to the National Asset Monetisation Pipeline prepared by the NITI Aayog recently, the government aims to raise Rs 20,782 crore through aviation assets in FY22-25 by privatising 25 AAI airports and selling AAI’s stake in JV airports. Of this total amount, “Rs 10,000 crore of monetisation value has been tentatively considered on account of divestment of AAI stake in private JV airports. The same has been phased out equally over FY22 and FY23… actual realisation from AAI stake sale will depend on multiple factors such as transaction timing, market conditions, investor appetite and transaction terms… during FY22-25, monetisation value of Rs 10,782 crore has been considered on account of estimated capex towards identified airports,” the NITI Aayog document says.


The total airport assets identified for monetisation account for about 18% of the AAI’s total airport assets. Since scale is important for investor interest, airports having annual traffic over 4 lakh passengers in FY2019 and 2020 have been considered.