AAI earmarks Rs.20,000 cr for upgrading airports

The Airports Authority of India (AAI) plans to spend Rs.20,000 crore in the next five years in building new airports and upgrading the existing ones across the country. Airlines have already given estimate to add about 200 planes in the near future and to cater to the emerging requirement of the nodal agency that has decided to ramp up capacity, said AAI Chairman Guruprasad Mohapatra. AAI will be investing Rs.2,500 crore in the next financial year and has already carried out capital expenditure of Rs.2,000 crore in the current fiscal, said official sources. The AAI had revenues of Rs.12,542 crore in FY17 against Rs.10,824 crore in the previous fiscal. Profit also went up by 22.8% to Rs.3,115.93 crore, however, a significant portion of the profit was from revenue sharing at Delhi and Mumbai airports. Much of this will be utilized to expand a dozen of the 125 airports that AAI manages.