All seven Adani airports saw an increase of 92 percent in domestic and 133 percent in international travelers.

Similarly, there has been a rise of 58 percent and 61 percent in the number of domestic and international flights respectively.

Air traffic jumped by around 100 percent compared to the previous year, taking the number to pre-pandemic levels with more than 14.25 million passengers using these airports over last year.

According to a spokesperson of Adani Airports Holdings Ltd, this upward trend is expected to continue, and it is anticipated that the number of trips people will take in a year will increase. One of the factors driving this growth is the restart of tourism after the pandemic.

Being the second busiest airport in the country, Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (CSMIA) recorded nearly 8.44 million passenger movements in January-February 2023. CSMIA witnessed nearly 2.22 million international and 6.22 million domestic passengers.

The first two months also saw a huge rush at Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International (SVPI) airport, Ahmedabad. It had 1.74 million domestic passengers flying in and out of the airport. It recorded 283,379 international travelers.

Jaipur is the 11th busiest airport in the country. Jaipur International Airport (JIAL) recorded nearly 0.95 million passenger movements. Exhibiting significant growth, JIAL witnessed nearly 69,300 international and around 0.88 million domestic passengers.

Being the busiest airport in Uttar Pradesh, Lucknow’s Chaudhary Charan Singh International Airport (CCSIA) recorded nearly 1.04 million passenger movements in both months. CCSIA witnessed a fruitful first two months with nearly 136,880 international and around 9.03 lakh domestic passengers.

Considered the gateway to Northeast India, Lokpriya Gopinath Bordoloi International (LGBI) Airport (Guwahati) has flights to and from 32 domestic and two international destinations. It recorded a footfall of 902,694 passengers, witnessing a sharp increase from the corresponding months last year.

Thiruvananthapuram recorded 299,850 and 299,770 domestic and international footfalls, respectively. The airport has connectivity to 10 domestic and 12 international destinations. Mangalore saw increased traffic of 209,713 national and 84,356 foreign travelers.

Both CSMIA and CCSIA handled record passenger movement on a single day. While Mumbai recorded around 1,51,543 travelers on February 25, 2023, Lucknow witnessed over 18,000 passengers on January 31, 2023, transiting through the airports.

How The Adani Group Acquired Six Airports

The Adani Group’s entry into the airport's sector in 2019 was in no way smooth sailing as the Department of Economic Affairs, as well as Niti Ayog, put on record several objections which were later overruled, paving way for the Conglomerate to sweep the operating rights for six airports.

On December 11, 2018, the Centre’s Public Private Partnership Appraisal Committee (PPPAC) discussed the Civil Aviation Ministry’s proposal for the process to invite bids for the privatization of the airports at Ahmedabad, Lucknow, Mangalore, Jaipur, Guwahati, and Thiruvananthapuram.

Department of Economic Affairs Recommendations On the Bidding Process For Privatisation Of Airports

The Department of Economic Affairs, in a note, had said, “These six airports projects are highly capital-intensive projects, hence it is suggested to incorporate the clause that not more than two airports will be awarded to the same bidder duly factoring the high financial risk and performance issues. Awarding them to different companies would also facilitate yardstick competition.”

The DEA’s note, dated December 10, 2018, to the PPPAC was submitted by a director in the department’s PPP cell.

The DEA cited the example of the Delhi and Mumbai airports, where these bids were awarded to two groups despite GMR being the only qualified bidder considering the scale of these projects. It also referred to the privatization of Delhi’s power distribution, where the city was carved out into three zones and given to two separate companies.

However, these red flags issued by the DEA were not addressed at the PPPAC meeting.

NITI Ayog On Airport Bidding Process

The NITI Ayog had also raised concerns over the bidding process as a memo prepared by the PPP vertical of the government’s key policy think-tank- said: “A bidder lacking sufficient technical capacity can well jeopardise the project and compromise the quality of services that the government is committed to provide”.

In response to this, the PPPAC, chaired by the then DEA Secretary, noted that the EGoS (empowered group of secretaries) had already decided that “Prior airport experience may neither be made a prerequisite for bidding, nor a post-bid requirement. This will enlarge the competition for brownfield airports, which are already functional”.

How Adani Got Operating Rights For 6 AAI-Run Airports

The Adani Group outbid its rivals, including experienced players like GMR Group, Zurich Airport, and Cochin International Airport Ltd by a huge margin, in each of the six bids, thereby winning the rights to operate all six airports for a period of 50 years. Again, this was a departure from the norm as in the earlier case of Delhi and Mumbai airports the tenure was 30 years, in addition to the AAI holding 26% equity in both these airports.

A year after it won the bids for the six airports, the Adani Group signed concession agreements for Ahmedabad, Mangaluru, and Lucknow airports in February 2020.

The Rise and Rise Of Adani Group Thereafter

Later, the Adani Group acquired a controlling interest in the country’s second-largest airport in Mumbai and the upcoming Greenfield airport in Navi Mumbai from the GVK Group. The GVK Group tried to prevent this takeover by signing an agreement with investors, including India’s sovereign fund (the NIIF), in October 2019. . But in less than a year, on August 31, 2020, the GVK Group signed an agreement to let Adani Enterprises acquire its stake in Mumbai airport and Navi Mumbai airport.

The Adani Group saw a meteoric rise in its fortunes in the next 24 months as it became the country’s largest private developer in terms of a number of airports handled and the second largest, in terms of passenger traffic.

Rs 2.2 lakh crore gain in 6 days! Why Adani stocks are rallying non-stop

NEW DELHI: Amid a spate of positive news flow in favor of the conglomerate, Adani stocks on Wednesday rallied for the sixth consecutive day today, with most stocks in the green zone despite a weaker sentiment in the market.

In the morning, 3 Adani stocks - Adani Green, Adani Total Gas, and Adani Transmission - were locked in 5% upper circuit limits today. Adani Power was up 4%, while the group's flagship entity Adani Enterprises was trading 2% higher.

References:

hindupost.in