Scindia Reports Record-Breaking Daily Flyer Numbers Surpassing Pre-Covid Levels

According to India’s aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia, the country is now surpassing its pre-Covid record of daily air passenger traffic due to factors such as economic growth, urbanization, and increased disposable income. At the CAPA India Aviation Summit, Scindia announced that the government plans to construct 26 additional airports under its regional connectivity scheme, and is also investing in aviation professionals and facilities such as flying training organizations and aircraft maintenance and repair centers.

India’s aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia stated that the country had achieved a peak of 410,000 air passengers per day in 2019. However, Scindia noted that in recent months, the daily air passenger traffic has exceeded this figure and reached a new record of 456,000 passengers per day.

“Now, on a daily basis, even though the high season is over, we are still experiencing 420,000-440,000 passengers per day in India,” he said.

“A country that had only 14 million domestic passengers in 10 years, today has 144 million domestic passengers. That is the potential we are talking about,” he said.

Seventy-four airports had been built since India’s independence till 2014, but in the last nine years, that number has doubled, Scindia said.

He said the government aims to add 26 airports to it under the UDAN (Ude Desh ka Aam Nagrik) scheme.

According to India’s aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia, the six major cities in India, including Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai, and Kolkata, currently have a capacity to handle 192 million air passengers per year, but this is expected to increase to 420 million within four years. In addition, Scindia stated that the number of aircraft operating in the Indian market is expected to increase from 700 to 2,000 in the next five to seven years.

To support this growth, the Indian government has hired personnel for key functions such as 400 employees in the aviation regulator, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, and 700 air traffic controllers. This will increase the number of air traffic controllers to 3,600 from the current 2,900. The government plans to hire an additional 600 employees by the end of this year to address critical understaffing issues in these areas. Source