Which of the following is NOT an amendment made to the Airport Economic Regulatory Authority (AERA) Amendment Act, 2021?
- (a)The government can call any airport a major airport just by notification.
- (b)A major airport is one which has an annual traffic of minimum 35 lakh passengers.
- (c)The government will club together profit-making and loss-making airports.
- (d)The government can offer airports as a package in PPP mode to the prospective
Answer
Why
Correct — B. The 35 lakh passenger threshold was already law before 2021: it was set by the AERA (Amendment) Act, 2019, which raised the parent 2008 Act's figure of 15 lakh.
So option (b) restates a definition the 2021 Act did not touch, and is the one that is NOT an amendment made in 2021.
What 2021 did was let the central government group airports and notify the group as a single major airport, so that tariff is fixed for the group rather than airport by airport.
Why the others are wrong
- (a)The government can call any airport a major airport just by notification. — Grouping is what 2021 added to the definition clause: the centre may now notify a group of airports as one major airport. Naming a single airport by notification was already in the 2008 Act, which makes (a) the weakest of the three.
- (c)The government will club together profit-making and loss-making airports. — Clubbing profit-making with loss-making airports is the practical purpose of the grouping power, since a group can be tariffed and tendered as one unit.
- (d)The government can offer airports as a package in PPP mode to the prospective — Offering airports as a package in PPP mode is that same grouping power seen from the bidder's side, so it describes the change rather than the untouched provision.
Concept
AERA was created by the Airports Economic Regulatory Authority of India Act, 2008 to determine tariffs and monitor performance standards at major airports. That Act set the major-airport bar at 15 lakh annual passengers; the 2019 amendment raised it to 35 lakh.
The 2021 amendment changed the definition of a major airport so that the central government may group airports and notify the group as one. Tariff is then determined for the group rather than airport by airport.
The purpose is to make small and unprofitable airports saleable: bundled with a busy one, they can be offered together under a public-private partnership.
In a NOT question, look for the statement that is true but old. The 35 lakh figure is a correct description of a major airport — it simply dates from 2019, not 2021.
Key facts
- AERA was set up under the Airports Economic Regulatory Authority of India Act, 2008, which defined a major airport as one with over 15 lakh annual passengers or any airport the centre notifies.
- The AERA (Amendment) Act, 2019 raised that threshold to over 35 lakh annual passengers.
- The 2021 amendment allows the central government to group airports and notify the group as a major airport.
- Grouping lets a loss-making airport be bundled with a profitable one when airports go to public-private partnership.
Study next
Common traps
- The 35 lakh figure is correct in itself, which is precisely why it answers a NOT question.
- Options (c) and (d) describe the same grouping power from different sides, and both are genuine 2021 changes.
Policy and Act items reward one clause rather than a summary — the same NOT framing is used on the socio-economic objectives of the Industrial Policy Statement 1980 on 13 Sep 2024, 16:00, GA Q.3.
Related PYQs
No directly related past PYQ was found.