The government has started the process of outsourcing the three airports of Pakistan including Islamabad, Karachi and Lahore airports. The Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority (PCAA) gave the detail of current situation to the National Assembly Standing Committee on Aviation on July 13.
The PCAA told the National Assembly Standing Committee on Aviation that the outsourcing will not cause the withdrawal of ownership of the airports. The spokesman of the PCCA told, Rest assured, no airport is being sold. This is merely a process of delegating specific activities while retaining the state ownership of the asset.
The transaction to the potential bidder will be governed under the Public Private Partnership Authority Act (2017). Neither the Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority cleared that which airport would be outsourced first nor the National Assembly Committee asked it.
There could be different forms of outsourcing including outsourcing the airport services, airport concession and lease agreement and divestiture of ownership. However, the ownership of the airports will not be withdrawn here.
Outsourcing of services of the airports includs cleaning, maintenance etc. The state-owned airport in Athens, Greece has been outsourced for its ground handling services to Swissport which is private company. This kind of outsourcing enables the country to keep overall control of the airport and taking the advantages of expertise and efficiency of private company.
Airports concession and lease agreements involve the state transferring most of the powers and control of the airport to a private company for specific time, imposing the conditions to protects the public interests.
The 30 -year agreement between the government of Brazil and the private consortium Invepar-ACSA for operation and expansion of Aao Paulo International Airport is the clear example of concession agreement. ?