The government aggressively persuing the neo-liberalisation policy has turned its vulture’s eyes on the Airports again. It has decided to hand over the Chennai and Kolkata Airports to private companies through the Public Private Participation (PPP) route. The timing is interesting. The decision is taken immediately after both these airports have been modernised by the Airport Authority of India (AAI) after spending hundreds of crore of rupees. What is the necessity for handing over the airports after spending a lot of money by the AAI and modernisation? Only to reap the benefits?

It is understood that the AAI gets its profit from about a few major airports in the country. Out of that,  Delhi and Mumbai as also Bengaluru and Hyderabad have already been handed over to private companies. They are making huge profits in addition through the usage of the land available by leasing out for banks, hotels etc. Now the proposal is to hand over Kolkata and Chennai also. Within a few years, AAI will be in loss, while the private companies will be reaping huge profits.

This policy of handing over the nation’s airports to the private companies has to be put an end to. Strong mass opinion and struggles by the unions in the AAI are necessary to counter the privatisation.