Trade unions slam Modi govt for airport privatisation, say it will hurt travellers and airlines

A day after the Kerala assembly passed a resolution against leasing Thiruvananthapuram international airport to a firm promoted by industrialist Gautam Adani, as many as 12 trade unions came out in support of the Kerala government and lashed out at Modi government for leasing out profit-making airports to a private firm.

The Thiruvananthpuram airport makes a profit of Rs 125 crore every year, say data.

Surprisingly, the RSS-affiliated Bharatiya Majdoor Sangh (BMS) has also supported the resolution along with the trade unions belonging to the left parties.

Condemning the proposal to privatise more airports, the unions in a joint statement said, “Granting the airports to a single business entity and group would lead to monopoly and the group will squeeze extra revenue from passengers and airlines”.

There were income leakage and loss of revenue for the Airports Authority of India at Mumbai and Delhi airports in the past, the statement issued by the trade unions said.

Demanding that “the privatisation of airports should be immediately stopped as it would escalate the cost for airline travellers and airlines as well”, the trade unions said none of the airports were making losses.

So far, 12 airports have been cleared for privatisation by the Modi government in one year alone – Lucknow, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Mangaluru, Thiruvananthapuram, Guwahati, Amritsar, Varanasi, Bhubaneshwar, Indore, Raipur and Trichy.

It is worth mentioning that the Airports Authority of India, which comes under the Ministry of Aviation, owns and manages more than 100 airports across the country.

Citing reports which claimed that the Modi government was also planning to sell its stake in IRCTC, the trade unions noted, “The unions condemn the central government's fetish for privatisation and sale of all their assets to their cronies and warn that this step is against the interests of the ordinary commuters, and urge the Central Government to withdraw its latest proposal”.