The Indian civil aviation sector is likely to log around 400 million passengers over the next seven to 10 years, Union minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said on Tuesday.
“India saw around 140 million domestic and 60 million international passengers pre-Covid and with the growth, we should be able to double our passenger traffic in the coming seven to 10 years,” the civil aviation minister said.
Noting that India had 400 aircraft in 2013-14, Scindia said, “Currently, India has 700 aircraft, and we are adding a delta of almost 15% per annum. We should be able to see a 1,012-strong fleet in the coming five years.”
There has been a paradigm shift at airports, he said, citing that in 2013-14, the country had only 74 airports, while 67 more were added in just the last eight years. “We will have 220 airports, inclusive of water drome and heliports, by 2026,” he said.
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“From an airline perspective, growth opportunities are tremendous...we are now closely competing with Indian Railways with our segment of competition, which is limited to 1AC and 2AC. The railways transport only around 185 million passengers (1AC and 2AC), hence they are growing at 5.6% CAGR, while the aviation sector is growing at 10.3%,” Scindia said.
“The growth rate in metros between 2010-2015 was about 7.8%, which is currently almost the same (around 8-9%) now. However, the growth rate of non-metros or regional airports during the same period has jumped from 10.5% to almost 31%. The future growth, hence, is going to come from regional airports,” he noted.
{{/usCountry}}“The growth rate in metros between 2010-2015 was about 7.8%, which is currently almost the same (around 8-9%) now. However, the growth rate of non-metros or regional airports during the same period has jumped from 10.5% to almost 31%. The future growth, hence, is going to come from regional airports,” he noted.
{{/usCountry}}Scindia also termed the launch of Akasa and the resumption of Jet Airways services to be “significant” in FY23.