The aviation sector in India is booming and has “great potential” owing to its rising middle class with higher disposable incomes and favourable demographics. Air travel has rebounded post lifting of coronavirus curbs, as per an Economic Survey.
The UDAN Scheme
The survey for 2022-23 labelled various factors which contributed immensely to the civil aviation sector, including the regional UDAN scheme. The UDAN scheme has been a mountainous achievement in connecting the regional airports in the hinterland. Under the UDAN (Ude Desh ka Aam Naagrik) scheme, tourism routes have risen to 59. Out of this, 51 are currently operational. This scheme aims to improve and stimulate connectivity while making it affordable.
Since its inception, the UDAN scheme has benefitted more than 1 crore travellers.
The government has a complete website dedicated to a complete information warehouse for UDAN scheme. The same can be accessed here – UDAN Scheme.
Highlights of the Economic Survey by the Civil Aviation
“The civil aviation sector in India has great potential owing to growing demand from the middle class, growth in population and tourism, higher disposable incomes, favourable demographics, and greater penetration of aviation infrastructure,”
the survey said.
While in FY21, there was a considerable decline in air traffic – a fall of 54% – last financial year witnessed a recovery.
“The current financial year has further shown a rebound, with passenger and cargo movement close to the pre-Covid-19 levels. The total number of passengers in December 2022 stood at 150.1 lahks, 106.4 per cent of the pre-Covid level (average of April 2019 to February 2020).
“During November 2022, total air cargo tonnage stood at 2.5 lakh MT, which is 89 per cent of the pre-Covid levels,” the survey said.
The government recently approved projects worth INR 4,500 crores to revive existing airstrips and unserved airports. In-principle approval has been received for 21 greenfield airports.
An amount of Rs 104.19 core has been reimbursed to the AAI through viability gap funding (VGF) during FY21 and FY22 towards the UDAN.
“Uncertain growth prospects in the global markets and uneven credit allocation to the transport sector led to a decline in credit to the shipping and aviation sector by 7.9 per cent and 8.7 per cent, respectively, in November 2022,” it said.
The survey mentioned a decline in bank credit for shipping and aviation.
Future Prospects
Parallelly, the focus is also on improving coordination among different stakeholders and ministries. This will help resolve compliance issues and increase the efficiency and effectiveness of investments.
In her first address to the joint sitting of the Parliament on Tuesday, President Droupadi Murmu said, “India has become the third largest aviation market in the world and is proliferating, with the number of airports increasing to 147 from just 74 in 2014.”
The takeaway from the survey is that the aviation sector is booming and growing healthy as ever. Thanks to the roadmap of aviation and tourism initiatives of the government, India is on track to become the top countries for tourism. Air travel is growing better than ever and keep following us to know about each month’s air traffic growth.
