With the expected growth in aviation travel and traffic forecast by the Airports Authority of India (AAI), the all-India passenger throughput growth for the next three years projects steady growth trends, the Government has taken several steps to meet the increasing demand in the aviation sector in future.

These projections, however, are subject to reassessment given the unpredictable nature of the Covid pandemic and the sharp increase in aviation fuel prices recently. Some of these steps are the following:

 (i) AAI has taken up the development of new and existing airports with a projected capital expenditure of around Rs. 25,000 crores in the next five years.  This includes the construction of new terminals, expansion, and modification of existing terminals, expansion and/ or strengthening of existing runways, aprons, Airport Navigation Services (ANS) infrastructure, control towers, technical blocks, etc.

(ii) The Public Private Partnership (PPP) airports at Delhi, Hyderabad, and Bengaluru are undertaking major expansion projects of around Rs. 30,000 crores by 2025. Additionally, Rs. 36,000 crores have been planned for investment in the development of new Greenfield airports across the country under PPP mode.

(iii) Government of India has accorded ‘in-principle’ approval for setting up 21 Greenfield Airports across the country. So far, eight Greenfield airports namely, Sindhudurg and Shirdi in Maharashtra, Durgapur in West Bengal, Pakyong in Sikkim, Kannur in Kerala, Orvakal in Andhra Pradesh, Kalaburagi in Karnataka, and Kushinagar in Uttar Pradesh have been operationalized.

(iv) Under Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS) – UdeDeshkaAamNagrik (UDAN), 405 routes connecting 65 airports (including 8 heliports and 2 water aerodromes) have been operationalised as of 08th March 2022.

(v) Goods and Services Tax (GST) rate has been reduced from 18% to 5% for domestic Maintenance, Repair, and Overhaul (MRO) services.

(vi) A conducive aircraft leasing and financing environment have been enabled.

(vii) The domestic capacity of the airlines has been restored to full, as in during pre-Covid times.

(viii) Improvement in air navigation infrastructure at Indian airports is being carried out.

(ix) The number of freighter aircraft deployed by Indian carriers has been increased from 7 in 2018 to 28 in 2021. As a result, the share of Indian carriers in international freighter movements has increased from 2% to 19% over the last two years.

This information was given by the Minister of State in the Ministry Of Civil Aviation (Gen. (Dr) V. K. Singh Retd) in a written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha on Monday.

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