BENGALURU: To cater to the robust air passenger traffic across airports in the country as well as the Regional Connectivity Scheme (UDAN) that aims to provide air travel to the common man, India will need nearly 900 passenger aircraft in the future, said a senior state government official.
Speaking to The New Indian Express on the sidelines of an Indo-French Defence and Aerospace Cooperation conference taking place in the city on Tuesday, Deepak Sood, CEO of Invest Karnataka Forum said, "We presently have nearly 500 passenger aircraft.
In comparison, China has around 2,500 passenger planes, five times that of India. The UDAN Scheme will also require additional aircraft." The UDAN (Ude desh ke nagrik) scheme launched by the Ministry of Civil Aviation in June 2016 aims to make air travel affordable to the common man by making use of remote and under served airports.
Data available with the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) substantiate the massive boom in air traffic in the country. The cumulative domestic and international passenger traffic for the financial year 2016-2017 stood at 158.43 million, an increase of 17.35% over the previous financial year.
The last decade has been phenomenal for passenger growth as 2006-2007 had a traffic of 71.6 million. Aircraft Movements (arrival/departure) too showed a huge growth with 8.10 lakh movements registered in the 2016-2017 financial year compared to 7 lakh in 2015-2016.
The Bangalore International Airport Limited (BIAL) too revealed last week that the airport touched all-time record of passenger traffic, serving 26.91 million passengers in the recently concluded financial year 2017-18, registering a growth of 17.6% over the previous fiscal.In a report released in October last year, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) said that India was set to become the third largest aviation market by 2025.
Under the UDAN Scheme, Koppal, Hubbali and Vidyanagar (in Ballari) are cities that are being connected under Phase-I in Karnataka. A BIAL spokesperson said Truejet had recently commenced operations to Vidyanagar.