The event marks a key step ahead within the Centre’s plan to deliver private-sector participation into the operations, administration and improvement of those airports.
After intensive inter-ministerial consultations, the Centre has lastly determined to lease out 11 Airports Authority of India (AAI) airports via 5 bundled concessions, official doc reviewed by businessline confirmed.
Accordingly, the Public Personal Partnership Appraisal Committee (PPPAC) has given in-principle approval for the leasing out of the airports.
The event marks a key step ahead within the Centre’s plan to deliver private-sector participation into the operations, administration and improvement of those airports.
In line with the doc, the 5 proposed airport bundles comprise Amritsar-Kangra, Varanasi-Gaya-Kushinagar, Bhubaneswar-Hubballi, Raipur-Aurangabad and Tiruchirappalli-Tirupati.
The proposals had been thought of on the 149th assembly of the PPPAC held on August 4, with the committee granting in-principle approval for the 5 bundles.
In addition to, this improvement comes after the Centre had been analyzing the bundling of bigger and smaller airports to enhance the long-term sustainability of smaller amenities via cross-subsidisation from bigger airports.
The proposed concessions will cowl the operations, administration and improvement of the airports and may have a concession interval of fifty years, because the paperwork confirmed.
Notably, AAI will act because the sponsoring and implementing company for the proposed transactions.
Following the in-principle approval, the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) will undertake a market-sounding train with infrastructure gamers to evaluate investor curiosity within the proposed transaction construction.
As per the paperwork, for the reason that bundling mannequin is being tried for the primary time, suggestions from potential private-sector individuals will probably be thought of earlier than the proposal is modified, if required, and submitted to PPPAC for its closing suggestion.
The proposed mannequin is aimed toward bringing private-sector participation into the event and operation of the airports whereas bettering the viability of smaller amenities via their bundling with bigger airports.
Moreover, the union authorities has been engaged on the proposal for a number of months.
In 2025, businessline had reported that the plan to lease 11 AAI airports had moved to the PPPAC for scrutiny, with the federal government contemplating a mannequin of pairing bigger airports with smaller ones.
The proposal had adopted an earlier spherical of consultations throughout the authorities on leasing greater than 10 AAI airports below the PPP mannequin.
The newest PPPAC resolution now takes the proposal past the session stage, with MoCA set to have interaction potential buyers earlier than taking the proposal again to the committee for its closing suggestion.
main spherical
The newest main spherical of AAI airport lease out was initiated in 2019, when Ahmedabad, Lucknow and Mangaluru airports had been awarded to Adani Enterprises below 50-year PPP concessions.
As well as, the remaining three airports within the six-airport package deal — Jaipur, Guwahati and Thiruvananthapuram — had been subsequently awarded, with all six handed over to non-public concessionaires by October 2021.
The transfer is predicted to deliver private-sector capital and operational experience into the event of the airports whereas making a mechanism to help the long-term viability of smaller amenities.
Revealed on August 23, 2026
