Monumental civil aviation growth to see Delhi Airport climbing to top three globally: Jyotiraditya Scindia

Describing the rapid growth currently being witnessed in India’s civil aviation industry as ‘monumental’ Jyotiraditya Scindia, Union Minister for Civil Aviation, said that Delhi airport would be climbing up the rankings to be among the top three globally.

“Delhi Airport today has a throughput capability of close to 70 million passengers. By the end of this year or early next year, Delhi airport will grow to 109 million passengers,” he said, adding, “that’s the way, the country is going to transform from a logistics and transportation standpoint, from metro cities down to tertiary cities".

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Scindia made these observations at Business Today’s ‘India @100: Achieving Global Leadership’ summit in New Delhi Saturday in response to a question from Siddharth Zarabi, Managing Editor, Business Today Television.

Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) is the country’s busiest airport and has four runways and a throughput capacity of 70 million passengers currently. The Ministry of Civil Aviation is very keen to develop IGIA as part of its strategy to make the country into a global aviation hub.

Scindia revealed as much when he said the mega aircraft orders by Indian carriers IndiGo and Air India will also help the country regain its position in the international skies, which it had held from the 1960s through 1970s.

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This year, IndiGo placed an order for 500 single-aisle Airbus 320 aircraft while Air India for 470 narrow and widebody Airbus and Boeing aircraft that are among the largest in the history of global civil aviation, which would be delivered or a five-to-ten-year period.

“With the 70 wide-bodied aircraft from the Air India deal and close to a [similarly] high number of 30-40 A321 XLRs from the IndiGo deal, we will be able to take the Indian flag all across the world with direct flights, whether it’s the European subcontinent, Americas or Africa to regain our international market share,” said Scindia.

He reiterated that the country that had sub-planted its national flag on the Moon’s surface on August 23, would soon be flying it across seven seas on its carriers.