India's Civil Aviation Ministry Proposes Capping Airport Privatisation Bundles to Prevent Market Concentration
India's Ministry of Civil Aviation has recommended limiting airport privatisation bundles to two or three per bidder (roughly five to six airports) in its third round involving 11 airports, aiming to prevent oligopoly formation. The recommendation responds to concerns raised by the Public Private Partnership Appraisal Committee reviewing the December 2025 privatisation proposal. The move reflects lessons from the 2019 round when Adani Group, with no prior airport experience, won all six airports offered and has since become India's largest private airport operator.
The Ministry of Civil Aviation has proposed capping the number of airport bundles awarded to a single bidder at two to three bundles (approximately five to six airports) in the third round of airport privatisation involving 11 facilities. The recommendation was made in response to queries from the Public Private Partnership Appraisal Committee, which is reviewing the ministry's December 2025 privatisation proposal. The 11 airports have been grouped into five bundles mixing metro and non-metro facilities to improve commercial viability of smaller airports: Amritsar-Kangra, Varanasi-Kushinagar-Gaya, Bhubaneswar-Hubli, Raipur-Aurangabad, and Trichy-Tirupati. The PPPAC also sought clarifications on minimum capital expenditure requirements, bidder eligibility criteria, and land parcel inclusion. The capping proposal directly addresses concerns about market concentration, as the Adani Group grew from zero airport presence a decade ago to operating eight airports handling approximately 78 million passengers annually—roughly 25% of India's air traffic—after winning all six airports in the 2019 privatisation round.
What different sources said
- The HinduCenter
Ministry recommends capping of airports for privatisation
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