The civil aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia announced on 23 March 2022 in the Lok Sabha sitting the plan to open 80 new airports in the country by the year 2025. Currently, India hosts a total of 140 airports on its land, including international airports. The minister was seen showing his concern over the possible jump in passenger traffic post the covid pandemic and the essential need to build new airports in the country as there is a chance of the revival of the aviation sector in the time ahead.
In the past seven days, the airlines have seen a total of 3.8 lakh passengers per day taking the airport services and the ministry plans to increase the air traffic by three times by 2023-24. The target has been set to 40 crore passengers flying annually by the next year by the Ministry of Civil Aviation. Another point of discussion was the launch of new airline services within the country. As the restraints over aviation due to covid are causing the aviation sector to suffer greatly, the government plans to launch two new airlines, Jet and Akasa, anytime soon.
Presently, the country has 140 airports working. There has been an addition of 66 airports in the past seven years. In 2014, 74 airports were controlling the air traffic of the entire country. It can be seen that the number of airports in the past seven years has been nearly doubled, from 74 (2014) to 140 (2021). This number will only go up as the ministry plans to build 80 more airports in the country by the year 2025, thereby, totaling the capacity to 220.
As per DGCA (Directorate General of Civil Aviation), in the year 2020, the country saw a total of 6.3 crore passengers travel domestically, while the number went to 8.4 crores in the year 2021. The two years have been given traveling blow by covid pandemic and the restraints put by the GOI upon flights.
Currently, the GOI is planning to develop 33 new cargo terminals domestically and set up 15 flight training schools to train pilots and create job employment. At present, over 15% of Indian pilots are female while the global average is 5%. The appropriate procedure to apply and train for a pilot license will also be taken into consideration.
