Before the Covid-19 pandemic hit India and its aviation industry, airline traffic had been growing smartly for the last many years: indeed, the industry had celebrated fifty consecutive months of double-digit growth in December 2018. Airlines in India had started transporting more people annually (~140 million) than the AC coaches of Indian Railways (~130 million) over longer distances and at comparable or lower prices. The UDAN scheme helped move the number of India’s operational airports to more than 100.
