The Airports Authority of India has shown interest in running five non-metro airports which are being managed by a wholly-owned subsidiary of Reliance Infrastructure, in the state of Maharashtra.

A senior official from the AAI said that the recent move by the state has come after Reliance Infrastructure (RI) has shown that it is not keen to continue operating these airports. RI operates these airports through its subsidiary – Reliance Airport Developers Pvt Ltd (RAPL). The company has the lease rights to operate five regional airports for a period of 95 years.

The regional airports include Yavatmal, Nanded, Baramati, Latur and Osmanabad. Currently an expense of Rs 2 crore per month is being incurred for the airports by RAPL. RAPL has also been estimated that about Rs. 100 crore has been invested in the development of terminals and other infrastructure at these airports till date.

On September 7, 2012, media reports said that RI was looking for buyers for the airport projects and that KPMG has done a preliminary valuation of these projects. Sources also said that RI was looking forward to exit the airport business segment,  as it does not fit with the overall core business of the conglomerate. VP Agrawal, the AAI chairman said that RI is no longer interested in operating these airports and are looking to exit.