The airports under private management and public-private partnership will continue to be regulated by airport regulator Airports Economic Regulatory Authority (AERA).
The government intends to more than double the passenger traffic threshold for airports to be categorised as ‘major airports’ to 3.5 million per annum from 1.5 million per annum. The new norm will bring down the number of airports under AERA to 16 or 17 from 30 airports.
AERA was created to decide charges at major airports after the government started privatising airport infrastructure that began with airports in Delhi and Mumbai.