Post-Covid trend shows a passenger footfall increase of 63.7% at airports in 2021-22 on year
The Government has accorded ‘In-principle approval’ for setting up of 21 Greenfield Airports across the country, nine of which have already been operationalized, Minister of State in the Ministry of Civil Aviation Gen. (Dr) V. K. Singh (Retd) said in a written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha 19 Dec 2022.
The 10 Greenfield airport at MoPA, Goa, has been inaugurated on 11 Dec 2022, he added.
For the construction and upgradation of airports, AAI has incurred CAPEX of Rs.2,504.38 crore in 2017-18, Rs.4,297.44 crore in 2018-19, Rs.4,713.49 crore in 2019-20, Rs.4,350 crore in 2020-21 and Rs.3,724.34 crore in 2021-22.
Since the year 2018, seven Greenfield airports namely Pakyong (Sikkim), Kannur (Kerela), Kalaburagi (Karnataka), Sindhudurg (Maharashtra), Kushinagar (Uttar Pradesh), Orvakal (Andhra Pradesh) and Donyi Polo (Arunachal Pradesh) airports have been operationalized apart from inauguration of Manohar International Airport at MoPA, Goa.
Upgradation of airports is a continuous process and is undertaken by Airports Authority of India (AAI) from time to time depending on the availability of land, commercial viability, socio-economic considerations, traffic demand, willingness of airlines to operate to and from such airports etc.
Post-Covid, in the year 2021-22, trend shows an increase of 63.7% in passenger footfalls at airports over the year 2020-21, he added.
During pre-Covid period, in the year 2018-19, the comparative number of passengers footfall at airports across the country increased by 11.6% over 2017-18. fiinews.com
