NEW DELHI: With the air passenger traffic consistently growing in India, the Civil Aviation Ministry plans to create additional capacity at 28 airports — not just in major airports such as Delhi, Chennai and Bengaluru, but also those in smaller cities.
In a written reply to the Lok Sabha on Thursday, Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha said the number of estimated departure passengers in India (both domestic and international) for 2018-19 is about 171 million.
National airport operator Airports Authority of India (AAI) will spend around Rs 20,000 crore on redevelopment of its 18 airports including Chennai, Srinagar, Lucknow and Goa. Besides the AAI airports, the government will also focus on 10 other airports — maintained by states and private operators. That list includes major airports such as Delhi, Bengaluru and Hyderabad.
India has witnessed a six-fold increase in passenger numbers over the past decade due to better connectivity and cheaper fares, thanks to a host of low-cost airlines. Aviation think-tank Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation (CAPA) predicted that New Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport, which is the country’s busiest airport, and Chennai’s International Airport will exceed their handling capacity in four to six years. Ten Indian airports including Dehradun, Jaipur, Guwahati, Mangalore, Srinagar and Pune are already operating beyond their capacity, CAPA had said in a recent report.
According to estimates of International Civil Aviation Organisation, Indian aviation industry held a major share (72.3 per cent) of the total passenger traffic in the South Asia region in 2016. Share of other South Asian countries were: Afghanistan (1.2 per cent), Bangladesh (14.4 per cent), Bhutan (1.9 per cent), Maldives (0.9 per cent), Nepal (0.4 per cent), Pakistan (5.8 per cent) and Sri Lanka (3.2 per cent).
According to IATA report for 2017, Indian domestic passenger market, in terms of Revenue Passenger Kilometres, has posted the fastest full-year growth for the third year in a row (17.5 per cent), followed by China (13.3 per cent).
Airport infrastructure
6-fold rise in passenger traffic over the last decade
A20,000 cr to be spent by Airports Authority of India on redevelopment of its 18 airports
10 more airports maintained by states and private operators to get additional capacity