Adani’s foray into aviation starts, wins bid to operate five airports

The Gautam Adani-promoted Adani Group won a contract for the privatisation and operation of five out of six government airports in the country. The government had put six Airports Authority of India (AAI) airports — Ahmedabad, Thiruvananthapuram, Lucknow, Mangaluru, Jaipur and Guwahati — for privatisation under the PPP model. Of these, Adani was declared highest bidder for the first five, while declaration for the Guwahati airport would be made on Tuesday.

The winner was selected on the basis of “per passenger fee” offered. The five airports would be handed over to the Adani group after completion of formalities.

“We are delighted to win the bids invited by the AAI in December for managing these airports under the PPP model,” the Adani group said in a statement.

By means of per passenger fee, the Adani group offered Rs 177, Rs 174, Rs 171, Rs 168 and Rs 115 for the Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Lucknow, Thiruvananthapuram and Mangaluru airports, respectively.

A total of 32 technical bids were received from 10 companies to operate six airports that are currently under AAI’s management. Last November, government had cleared a proposal for managing six AAI-run airports on PPP basis.