Doubling of the number of airports to 149, a total of 517 new air routes and 1.5 crore fiers will give a massive boost to India’s aviation sector, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said in her budget speech on Thursday.
Sitharaman said airlines have placed record orders for more than 1,000 aircraft and added that the aviation sector has been “galvanised” in the last decade.
“The UDAN scheme in India aims to enhance regional connectivity. Addittional 517 new routes are being added, it indicates a substantial expansion of air travel accessibility,” said Nishant Pitti, CEO of online travel portal EaseMyTrip.
She however did not mention whether the government has proposed an allocation of Rs 1,500 crore on UDAN (Ude Desh ka Aam Nagrik) the regional connecvity scheme as sought by the ministry of civil aviation.
According to an annual assessment recently released by the ministry of civil aviation, 60 New regional routes commenced in 2023, three more greenfield airports operationalized. Aviation regulator the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA)issued an all-time high, 1562 Commercial Pilot Licenses. About 9,000 remote pilot certificates were issued through the digital sky playform.
On November 19 this year, airlines in India flew a record 4,56,910 domestic passengers.
