Aviation doom: AAI fears 15% revenue loss in '08-09

New Delhi: The slowdown in aviation industry has hit the fortunes of state-run Airports Authority of India (AAI) hard. The country's biggest
airport operator fears a 10% to 15% drop in revenue this financial year over last year's figure of Rs 3,000 crore, at a time when projects worth Rs 12,500 crore need to be executed in the 11th Five Year Plan and Rs 3,400 crore investment is required this year.
The drop in revenue projections may also force AAI to revise upwards its earlier projection of raising Rs 2,650 crore from the market in 2008-09 and 2009-10.
"We had earlier planned to raise Rs 1,100 crore this fiscal and the balance next year. The government had also allowed raising this amount through private placement of bonds and external commercial borrowings. But with global financial markets down, ECBs don't remain a viable alternate now,” said a senior official.
AAI's revenue last fiscal was Rs 3,000 crore, a figure that could drop by Rs 300-400 crore this time on account of lower aircraft and passenger movement. The closure of its busy Bangalore and Hyderabad airports this year has also added to the financial crunch as the cities now have privately-run airports.
The authority is developing 35 non-metro airports apart from investing heavily in modernising the air traffic control systems. Its big ticket projects are the about Rs 4,000-crore Chennai and Kolkata airport modernisation programmes. Since new infrastructure is developed for the long run, the AAI is not downsizing its big plans due to the current slowdown.
12/11/08 Saurabh Sinha/Times of India

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Categories: Airports Nov 2008