AAI extends contracts at six airports till March after Adani seeks time

The Airports Authority of India (AAI) is extending its contracts with concessionaires at six airports until March 2021. The Adani Group has sought time to take over three of these six airports, and cabinet approval is pending for privatisation of the remaining three. This will delay the privatisation of the Ahmedabad, Lucknow, Mangaluru, Jaipur, Guwahati and Thiruvananthapuram airports. The Adani Group won bids to operate, manage and develop all the six facilities in February 2019. In February 2020, concession agreements for Ahmedabad, Lucknow and Mangaluru were signed. However, in March 2020, the company informed AAI that it would not be able to take over the airports, citing force majeure because of the pandemic’s impact on the sector.