Four major airports in A.P. in the red

Four major airports – Rajamahendravaram, Tirupati, Vijayawada, and Visakhapatnam – had suffered a whopping ₹119 crore loss throughout the 2018-19 monetary yr in Andhra Pradesh.

As per the Airports Authority of India’s report on the ‘Loss-making airports (2018-19)’, the complete expenditure on the 4 airports had exceeded ₹268 crore towards their income of ₹148.35 crore.

Since early 2020, the operations at these airports had been halted at common intervals resulting from the lockdowns throughout the first and second waves of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Tirupati airport suffered the highest lack of ₹42.70 crore. It had barely earned ₹21.72 crore towards the expenditure of ₹64.42 crore. The Vijayawada airport had reported a lack of ₹41.70 crore towards ₹73.24 crore expenditure with a meagre income of ₹31.54 crore.

The Rajamahendravaram airport registered a income of ₹8.61 crore, the lowest amongst the 4 airports. Its expenditure was greater than ₹41.45 crore, and the loss was a whopping ₹32.84 crore.

The income earned by the Kadapa airport was ₹57 lakh, however the expenditure was greater than ₹10.38 crore.

The Visakhapatnam airport, nonetheless, managed to earn a income of ₹86.48 crore towards an expenditure of ₹89.48 crore.

Tourist sights, worldwide sports activities occasions, and worldwide flight companies stay the prime income sources for the airport.

Privatisation risk

Rajamahendravaram MP and Member, Parliamentary Standing Committee on Transport, Tourism and Culture, M. Bharat, had said that strengthening the AAI was the want of the hour.

Speaking at a gathering of the Standing Committee in New Delhi not too long ago, Mr. Bharat feared that the Airports Economic Regulatory Authority (Amendment) Bill, 2021, would in the end result in privatisation of the loss-making airports.