Indian airports starting to strain as passenger numbers surge
Growing middle class choosing cheap flights from budget carriers is straining services, with major airports expected to be overloaded in under six years
India’s airports are struggling to cope with a massive surge in passengers and tens of billions of rupees must be spent to boost their capacity, analysts have warned.
The country is witnessing a huge boom in air travel as its growing middle class increasingly takes to the skies but experts say infrastructure is failing to keep up.
“There’s an urgent need for capacity building in major Indian airports as they are bursting at the seams and close to saturation,” said Binit Somaia, South Asia Director at the Centre for Aviation (CAPA).
India has seen a six-fold increase in passenger numbers over the past decade as people take advantage of better connectivity and cheaper fares thanks to a host of low-cost airlines.
Indian airports handled 265 million domestic passengers in 2016 and will cross 300 million this year, according to CAPA. The country’s entire airport network is only capable of handling 317 million passengers, it says.