The Chennai airport recorded Rs 56.05 crore profit while Calcutta airport posted a profit of Rs 21.40 crore. The Bangalore airport, which is also being considered for privatisation by the Centre, was less profitable than the international airports. However, it recorded a healthy Rs 4.90 crore profit.

The airport profits are directly related to the number of landings and take-offs. The airports at Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Calcutta and Bangalore accounted for 74 per cent of passengers handled by all airports in the country in 1997-98.

"The profits are largely derived from aircraft landing fees, aircraft parking fees, navigational landing charges, passenger service charges," said an official of the Airports Authority of India (AAI).The 13 profitable airports cross-subsidise the 69 loss-making airports of the AAI. Besides being the busiest airports, these airports also have a high asset value for potential investors. The AAI is in the process of calculating the net asset value of the five airports to be privatised. The asset values will be necessary for evaluation process while selecting private promoters.

The move to privatise these airports is expected to fetch additional equity to build world-class infrastructure for the airports. However, AAI will have to first lay down clear-cut guidelines concerning management structure, participation of private promoters and employment policy. AAI is currently grossly over-staffed. The five airports to be corporatised employ 7,500 employees while they can efficiently function with half this number.

Although the figures for number of aircraft handled by each airport in 1997-98 are not available, figures for 1996-97 indicate that the international airports got the maximum traffic.

Mumbaiairport handled 31,487 international aircraft movements and 65,707 domestic aircraft movements in 1996-97. Delhi recorded 31,139 international aircraft movements and 44,756 domestic aircraft movements. The Chennai airport dealt with 9,984 international landings and take-offs, along with 22,135 domestic aircraft movements. The Calcutta airport dealt with 7,807 international aircraft movements and 20,436 domestic aircraft movements.