Skift Take
As demand for air travel and airline capacity increases, airport infrastructure is being ramped up to cater to a surge in passengers.
The Skift India Newsletter is your go-to platform for all news related to travel, tourism, airlines, and hospitality in India.
The Indian government is planning to invest INR 920 billion ($11 billion) in airport infrastructure. This fund will be used for construction of new airports and expansion of existing ones, India’s civil aviation minister Kinjarapu Rammohan Naidu said.
The aim is to reach 200 operational airports by 2025, with another 200 airports being added over the course of the next two decades. At present, India has 157 airports. The minister said that the focus was on creating “world-class” facilities at the airport to ensure that air travel becomes more accessible to the common man.
This has come amid a surge in the aviation sector in India. Naidu said that airlines increased their capacity by about 9% this year, totaling 240 million seats across domestic and international markets. Earlier this year, data from aviation analytics firm OAG showed that India is the third-largest domestic aviation market as its domestic airline capacity increased from 8 million in April 2014 to 15.6 million this year.
India’s domestic air passenger traffic is expected to reach 300 million by 2030.
Surge in Fleets: The investment to upgrade airport infrastructure is a part of India’s overall expanding aviation market. The increasing demand has led to domestic airlines increasing their fleet size. Last year, former civil aviation minister Jyotiradit