Aviation

Aviation

A rising proportion of middle-income households, healthy competition amongst Low-Cost Carriers, infrastructure buildup at leading airports and supportive policy framework has given a positive push to the aviation sector. The civil aviation industry in India has emerged as one of the fastest growing industries in the country during the last three years and can be broadly classified into scheduled air transport service which includes domestic and international airlines, non-scheduled air transport service which consists of charter operators and air taxi operators, air cargo service, which includes air transportation of cargo and mail.

The total number of domestic passenger in 2014 was 60 million which doubled to 143 million in 2020 prior to Covid-19. International passengers have increased from 43 million to 64 million. In terms of aircraft, the numbers have increased from around 400 in 2014 to 723 in 2023 despite the impact of Covid-19. 

Currently, the country has 149 operational airports which includes 137 airports, 2 Water aerodromes and 9 Heliports. Among them there are 29 international, 92 domestic, and 10 custom airports. To meet the growing demand for air travel in India, it has become imperative to increase the capacity of airport infrastructure. To augment the airport infrastructure the government aims to develop 100 airports by 2024 (under the UDAN Scheme). More than 0.26 million UDAN flights have operated and over 13.6 million passengers have availed the benefits in UDAN flights so far.