Fewer chartered flights bleed Airports Authority of India in Begumpet

Hyderabad: The Begumpet Airport and two non-operational airports at Warangal and Nadirgul have incurred losses for the Airports Authority of India (AAI)  in the four-year period from 2014-15 to 2017-18. The AAI’s three airports in Telangana state and five in Andhra Pradesh have incurred large financial losses.

The airports at Begumpet, Warangal and Nadirgul are operated by the AAI apart from those at Tirupati, Visakhapatnam, Vijayawada, Kadapa, and Rajamundry in Andhra Pradesh.

The Begumpet airport, which caters to non-commercial air traffic like chartered flights and VIP flights, has made a loss of Rs 31.94 lakh in financial year 2014-15, while the annual loss in the previous two years was only Rs 70,000.

A senior official of AAI attributed the losses to “less air traffic operations resulting in less aeronautical revenue. Because of no or fewer operations, there is no aeronautical revenue potential.”

He said AAI also spends on basic maintenance and security at the airport but gets no revenue.

AAI manages 125 airports in the country 18 international airports, 7 customs airports, 78 domestic airports and 26 civil enclaves at defence airfields. Of the 125, only 100 are currently operational. Of these, only 15 have made cumulative profits in the four-year period from 2014-15 to 2017-18.

Gujarat has the highest number of AAI managed airports at 11, followed by Maharashtra which has eight. A majority of airports in India are managed by a public-private entities, including the ones in Delhi, Mumbai and the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport in Hyderabad. 

As far as the loss-making airports are concerned, Delhi's Safdarj-ung Airport reported a cumulative loss of Rs 245 crore between 2014-15 and 2017-18, the highest for any AAI managed airport in the country. 

This airport is primarily used by VVIPs. Among the airports used for civilian operations, Bhopal airport reported a loss of Rs 225 crore in the same four years.