New Delhi

The Centre on Monday clarified, there is no government policy barring major airport operators from holding substantial equity in or operating scheduled airlines.

Murlidhar Mohol, Union Minister of State for Civil Aviation, said this in Rajya Sabha today in response to an unstarred question by CPI(M) MP John Brittas on cross-ownership between airports and airlines.

The Minister clarified, "There is no such Government Policy restricting operators of major airports from holding substantial equity in or operating scheduled airlines."

Meanwhile, he stressed, some existing agreements for airports developed under the Public Private Partnership (PPP) model restrict scheduled airlines and their group companies or associates from holding shares in the airport operators.

"The extant contractual agreements relating to some airports under Public Private Partnership (PPP) contain certain restrictions on scheduled airlines and their group entities/associates from holding Equity Share of the Concessionaires," he said.

Also, the clarification came after the Airports Authority of India (AAI) received a request seeking a waiver of contractual restrictions that could potentially allow an airport operator to enter the airline business.

"Request seeking waiver of the relevant agreement provision has been received by Airports Authority of India (AAI). The matter has not yet been examined by the Ministry of Civil Aviation," Mohol said.

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Notably, this comes after earlier media reports said major airport operators, including GMR Group and Adani Group, were awaiting approval to enter the airline business by seeking changes to existing rules governing airport operators' ownership in scheduled airlines. However, Adani Group denied the claims stating the reports are "false" and "baseless."

"Adani Enterprises is not evaluating any proposal to enter the airline business," the company said in a statement, stressing "These reports are entirely baseless and factually incorrect," as per the release shared by the company.