Page 15 - AAA March / April 2024 Digital Magazine | GBP

COMMUTER

ASPIRATIONS

India is seeing a spurt in regional air travel

By Atul Chandra

ndia’s commercial aviation Domestic air traffic in India by airports in India, is heading
sector is seeing burgeon- 2030 is slated to grow to 300 towards its eighth year. The
I ing growth with carriers million passengers annually. A RCS – UDAN initiative has led
reporting record passenger five-fold increase from 60 mil- to a spurt in regional carriers
numbers following the after- lion passengers carried in 2014. and renewed interest by sched-
math of COVID-19. Before the During the year 2023, the Indian uled operators in operating to
pandemic, India was one of the scheduled airline operators also regional destinations in India.
fastest growing aviation markets inducted 112 aircraft into their These airlines are also tapping
in the world, reporting a robust fleet in 2023, with approximately into the Viability Gap Funding
double-digit Compound Annual 750 commercial aircraft in ser- (VGF) offered for regional air
Growth Rate (CAGR) of 12.4% vice in India today. transport by MOCA, in addition
in terms of total passenger traffic to other concessions provided
between 2014-15 to 2019-20. by the airport operators,
Driving Growth
Central Government and State
As per data released by India’s The Ministry of Civil Aviation’s Governments.
Ministry of Civil Aviation, India’s (MOCA) flagship Regional
aviation industry is back on Connectivity Scheme (RCS)- According to information
its growth trajectory with total UDAN (Ude Desh ka Aam released by the Ministry in
passenger traffic in 2022-23, Nagrik) launched to enhance February, since the incep-
recovering to 96% of what it was regional air connectivity from tion of the RCS-UDAN
compared to pre-covid air travel. unserved and underserved Scheme, 519 routes have

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