Indian govt aims to have 220 airports by 2025

INTERNATIONAL DESK: The Indian government has set a goal of rising the quantity of airports from 140 to 220 by 2025, civil aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia mentioned in Lok Sabha on Wednesday, as he anticipated that the revival of the sector, scarred by the Covid-19 pandemic, could lead to a considerable bounce in passenger visitors.

Replying to a dialogue on the calls for grants for his ministry, which was handed by the House, Scindia mentioned as many as 3.82 lakh passengers flew day by day up to now seven days and the ministry has set a goal of practically tripling air visitors to 40 crore by 2023-24.

He mentioned that at a time when the worldwide airline trade is going through difficulties, two new airways, Jet and Akasa, will quickly launch their companies.

Scindia advised the House that there have been 74 airports within the nation until 2014 whereas 66 new ones had been added up to now seven years. “We have nearly doubled the capacity (in seven years). Our resolve is now to take this number up to 220 by 2025,” he mentioned.

As per the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) information, 8.38 crore folks travelled on home flights in 2021, as in contrast to 6.3 crore in 2020 — the 12 months of Covid outbreak and lengthy lockdowns. The quantity of passengers elevated from 6.70 crore in 2013-14 to 14.50 crore in 2018-19. The quantity of planes too elevated from 400 from 2013-14 to 710 by 2018-19.

Scindia additionally talked about that the federal government has deliberate to create 33 new home cargo terminals, arrange 15 new flight coaching faculties for pilots, create extra jobs, and enhance give attention to the drone sector.

He mentioned steps can be taken to simplify the method of granting pilot licenses utilizing superior applied sciences, whereas flagging off that over 15% of pilots in India are females in opposition to the worldwide common of 5%. “This is another example of women empowerment,” he mentioned.