India Touched 110 Million Fliers In 2022: Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia

Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said aviation is growing so much in India that the number of fliers in 11 months of 2022 is already more than that of 2019, the year immediately before the Covid pandemic. He was speaking to NDTV in a week in which India yet again broke its record of daily fliers, crossing 4.3 million on December 24.  "The (aviation) sector is heralded for new growth... growth that's going to be permanent," he said. He cited two factors behind a 15 per cent growth to 111 million till November this year when compared to all 12 months of 2019 - one, "the desire" of people to travel; two, the growth "in terms of airlines increasing fleet size and the number of airports increasing". From 74 airports in 2013-14, the number has gone up to 146, he said, adding that the expectation in the next 4-5 years number is to cross 200.