The Adani-controlled Thiruvananthapuram Airport’s projection of revenue from non-aeronautical services such as the sale of food and beverages — used to subsidise costs levied on airlines and passengers — is just a “miniscule” 12% of the norm, according to the country’s airport tariff regulator. In fact, it is only a third of what the airport earned before privatisation.
The Airports Economic Regulatory Authority (AERA) has recommended that this revenue projection should be hiked fourfold, from the ₹103 crore proposed by the airport to ₹395 crore, over a period of five years. The Adani-run airport has dismissed the AERA’s projection as “notional revenue”.
