ON CRUISE CONTROL

Civil aviation in India is taking off, albeit slowly, to catch up with its global peers. All it needs to focus is on maintaining the quality and financial prudence

- Anilesh S. Mahajan

As the shadow of the pandemic is receding from India’s air traffic, air travel is getting back to normal. More than 100 million people are travelling domestically. This is expected to reach 166 million next year with all Covid-related restrictions gone and international travellers also moving freely. India is already the fourth-largest aviation market behind the US, China and Europe. The country has 129 operational airports. Indian skies saw 11,757,112 air movements towards end-March 2022, which is pushing the country to develop more airports. In the next four years, India expects the numbers to reach 220.