Civil Aviation

India is currently the 7th largest civil aviation market in the world and is expected to become the third-largest civil aviation market within the next 10 years. Indigo is the largest airline company in India with the highest market share. India has become the third largest domestic aviation market in the world and is expected to overtake UK to become the third largest air passenger* market by 2024.

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. Domestic traffic contributes around 69% of the total airline traffic in South Asia and India’s airport capacity is expected to handle 1 billion trips annually by 2023.

India’s passenger* traffic stood at 188.89 million in FY22 and 76.47 million in the first quarter of FY 2022-23. In FY22, airports in India pegged the domestic passenger traffic to be 166.8 million, a 58.5% YoY increase, and international passenger traffic to be 22.1 million, a 118% YoY increase, as compared to previous year traffic.

Indian Ministry of Civil Aviation’s flagship program Regional Connectivity Scheme UDAN has completed 5 years of success. The scheme was initiated with the objective to fulfil the aspirations of the common citizen by following the vision of ‘UdeDeshkaAamNagrik’, with an enhanced aviation infrastructure and air connectivity in tier II and tier III cities.

UDAN has significantly increased the regional air-connectivity in the country. Earlier there were 74 operational airports but because of the UDAN scheme this number has increased to 141 by now.

68 underserved/unserved destinations which include 58 Airports, 8 Heliports & 2 Water Aerodromes have been connected under UDAN scheme. With 425 new routes initiated under the scheme, UDAN has provided air connectivity to more than 29 States/ UTs across the length and breadth of the country. More than one crore passengers have availed the benefits of this scheme as on 4th August 2022. The scheme has also provided a much-needed platform to the regional carriers to scale up their operations.

220 destinations (airports/heliports/water aerodromes) under UDAN are targeted to be completed by 2026 with 1000 routes to provide air connectivity to unconnected destinations in the country. UDAN, 954 routes have already been awarded to connect 156 airports.

Currently, India has approximately 137 operational airports, comprising 24 international, 103 domestic and ten custom airports. To augment the airport infrastructure and to meet the growing demand for air travel in India, it has also become imperative to increase the capacity of airport infrastructure. In this regard, the GoI aims to develop 100 airports by 2024 (under the UDAN scheme described below) and expects to invest 1.83 billion in the development of airport infrastructure by 2026.