Employees of the Airports Authority of India have strongly opposed the move to privatise the airports in Mumbai and Delhi in the "guise" of their being restructured or leased out.
"The government's announcement on FDI being reduced to 49 per cent from 74 per cent does not make any difference as far as the management of these airports is concerned. We oppose the privatisation move," AAI Officers Association general secretary P K Chadha said in New Delhi.
He said the move was against the declared policy of the present government, which, in its Common Minimum Programme stressed that the profit-making public sector undertakings will not be privatised.
The AAI's profit in the last two years has been more than Rs 300 crore (Rs 3 billion) annually, of which about 70 per cent accrues from the Delhi and Mumbai airports, he pointed out in a statement.
Of the total AAI profit before tax of Rs 497.05 crore (Rs 4.97 billion) in 2002-03, total profit from the Delhi and Mumbai airports was Rs 337.72 crore (Rs 3.38 billion).
This profit is utilised for the development and running of about 100 other airports which have never generated any profit but are required to be kept operational due to politico-social and strategic compulsions.
Once Delhi and Mumbai airports are taken out of AAI's control, operation and development of all these airports will become unviable and soon the AAI will become sick.
"We see the Delhi-Mumbai airport privatisation as the first step to ruin a profit-earning organisation and sell it off piece-by-piece," he added.