Scindia says India will see 400 million air travellers in 7-10 years

New Delhi: According to Jyotiraditya Scindia, minister of civil aviation, in the upcoming seven to ten years, 400 million people are anticipated to travel by air in India.

Additionally, he stated that domestic airlines have excellent development prospects and that they anticipate having a fleet of 1,200 aircraft in five years.

Prior to the pandemic, there were approximately 200 million domestic and international air travellers. The minister predicted that number will double to 400 million within the next seven to ten years.

Speaking at a conference organised by industry body Assocham, Scindia said the country is projected to have a total of 220 airports, including heliports and aerodromes, by 2026, PTI reported.

More than 97 lakh domestic passengers flew by air in July, according to a recent study by the aviation watchdog DGCA. In contrast, 6.69 crore persons travelled domestically between January and July of 2022.

The country's civil aviation sector is on the recovery path after being hit by the coronavirus pandemic.

Due to the travel restrictions put in place in India and other nations because of the Covid-19 outbreak, the aviation industry has been greatly disrupted over the previous two years. Beginning in October of last year, the government permitted domestic aircraft to run at 100% of their pre-Covid capacity.