Airlines, Airports shouldn’t be run by government: Puri

NEW DELHI: Hardeep Singh Puri, Minister of Civil Aviation, Government of India on Sunday, August 30, while addressing a virtual meet on Namo App said that although Air India has been an asset with very good record and highly trained professionals. But the airlines and airports should not be run by the government and the government rules should be applied to commercial entities.

Puri made his remarks at the time when the Union Cabinet’s approval on August 19 to lease out the Thiruvananthapuram airport to Adani Enterprises under the public-private partnership (PPP) model for a period of 50 years is being opposed by the Kerala government. At present, more than 100 airports, including the one in Kerala’s capital city are owned and managed by the Centre-run Airports Authority of India (AAI).

Speaking about the privatization of Air India, Puri said as a going concern, one that is attractive to potential bidders, it should be privatized, and he is hoping that within this year the privatization process will be completed. The deadline for placing bids for Air India has been extended by two months till October 30 by the Central Government on last Tuesday, August 25, as the economic activity has been disrupted worldwide due to the after effects of COVID-19. The process of selling the national carrier’s stake began on January 27 and this is the fourth extension given by the government for placing bids.

Six major airports — Lucknow, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Mangaluru, Thiruvananthapuram and Guwahati were privatized by the central government in February 2019. After a competitive bidding process, the rights to run all of them was won by Adani Enterprises.