New Delhi: India has witnessed its highest-ever number of domestic flyers in this festive month of October.
According to DGCA data, 1.04 crore people flew within the country last month. It became the second time ever so far that India witnessed more than a crore domestic flyers in a month. This feat was first recorded this May when 1-crore-and-1-lakh flew in the peak summer holiday month.
This October saw 20.5 per cent more domestic flyers that the 86.7 lakh who flew in same month last year. The January to October, 2017 period has seen 9.5 crore domestic flyers, up 17.3 per cent from 8.1 crore flyers in same period last year. The record number of flyers came as airlines have been offering rock bottom fares.
However, the growth in flyer numbers is coming as major Indian airports are creaking under a severe infrastructure crunch. The biggest airports — Delhi and Mumbai — currently have no slots to offer to accommodate more flights.
While Mumbai airport is completely choked and the city will be able to handle more flyers and flights only when the Navi Mumbai airport gets operational in about five years, Delhi Airport — despite sitting on enormous land bank — is facing a shortage of both terminal and runway capacity. The Greater Noida airport at Jewar is also some years away.
"Airport infrastructure development has not kept pace with traffic growth. Delhi is now making plans which are yet to start being implemented and may be ready only by 2021. The growth in air traffic has caught everyone by surprise but now is the time to keep the surprise aside and get cracking," said an airline official.
India lags behind on airport infra comes even as it is now the fastest growing domestic air travel market globally. Last year India became the third largest domestic air travel market globally, pushing Japan to number four spot.
Meanwhile in October, 2017, when India saw the highest-ever 1.04 crore domestic flyers, IndiGo accounted for 39.5 per cent market share of this traffic followed by Jet (17.2 per cent), SpiceJet and Air India at 13.1 per cent each, GoAir at 8.8 per cent, the two Tata JV airlines (7.8 per cent) and the rest by other small players.