Civil aviation ministry evolves concept of merchant airports

New Delhi, May 18 (UNI) To evolve the concept of merchant airports, secretary at the ministry of civil aviation Ashok Chawla recently held a meeting with various stakeholders to formulate a policy initiative.

Merchant airports have been conceptualised as airport infrastructure entirely in private sector with private resources and with no government funding. The entrepreneur is expected to set up and operate airport on the basis of commercial viability, subject to safety and security oversight of the government.

Such a proposal will dispense with the requirement for investment of government resources. Therefore, a more liberal and only a license-based approval procedure could be considered.

The civil aviation minister has proposed to allow 100 per cent foreign direct investment in such airports.

At the meeting, it was noted that though there are no set international practices in this regard, which could be used as benchmarks, in the context of rapid growth of civil aviation and the need for commensurate infrastructure being put in place, airports working purely on commercial viability basis in private sector is required.

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