A few days after he disclosed to Business Today about the government’s keenness to develop Delhi as a global aviation hub, civil aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia reconfirmed that the plan was on course.
“By the end of this year, we hope that Delhi will become a passenger throughput terminal of 109 million passengers per year. This means we will be among the top three largest airports in the world with a fourth runway and new terminal. So, what does that call for? That calls for a hub being created within India,” Scindia told news director of India Today and Aaj Tak, Rahul Kanwal, during the BT Mindrush & BT Best CEOs Awards event in Mumbai on Wednesday.
The minister said that he was working closely with the Delhi airport as well as carriers Air India and IndiGo to see how the volatility curve in terms of landing and departure timings – known as minimum connect time (MCT) in aviation parlance – between domestic and international flights could be flattened.
“We now have a consultant who is now engaged with us. And it is our dream that in the months to come, we create that hub within India with Delhi being the first [global aviation hub within the country],” informed Scindia.
Scindia said that he eventually wished to develop multiple such hubs within India as the country’s aviation sector had huge growth potential.
“With 1.38 billion people and 17 per cent of the world’s population, we have the potential to have multiple hubs in our country, whether in south, north or west India. But we have to make a beginning somewhere,” he observed.
He admitted that the legacy of giving away multiple routings under Sixth Freedom of The Air had led to such hubs being created in countries located in the vicinity of India’s western and eastern borders. Therefore, it was high time the country reclaimed reclaim the traffic going to such overseas hubs.
“With our carriers Air India and IndiGo on a massive fleet expansion programme we got to be able to offer point-to-point to Indians. And we need to offer that both ways. We as consumers would prefer that rather than getting re-routed through someone else’s hub,” asserted Scindia.
The minister also said that both domestic and international traffic combined, India was already the fourth-largest aviation market globally. And by next year it was all set to overtake the UK to become the world’s third-largest aviation market.