In comparison, other major economies of the US and China could garner only 3.3% and 10.7% growth, respectively, though their flier base is much larger
Citing India to be the third-largest and fastest growing domestic aviation market in the world, the Economic Survey 2017-2018 reveals that in terms of domestic tickets sold, the industry recorded 23.5% growth during 2016-17.
In comparison, other major economies of the US and China could garner only 3.3% and 10.7% growth, respectively, though their flier base is much larger.
For domestic passenger traffic, the industry registered a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9.89% during 2007-08 to 2016-17, the survey revealed. Further, during April-September of this fiscal, the domestic airlines carried 57.5 million passengers, a growth rate of 16% over the corresponding previous last year.
On an overall basis, scheduled Indian and foreign carriers carried 29.2 million passengers to and from India, showing a growth rate of 9% during April-September 2017-18 over the year-ago period.
The data comes in the backdrop of similar statistics released by aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) last week, with total number of passengers carried by domestic airlines crossing 100 million, first time ever in the country's history.
The DGCA data reveals that 1171.76 lakh passengers travelled during January-December 2017 as against 998.88 lakh during the corresponding period of previous year, thereby registering a growth of 17.31%.
As per an estimate by airline lobby body International Air Transport Association (IATA), India will displace the UK as the third-largest aviation market by 2026. The passenger traffic will reach around 442 million by 2035, an addition of about 322 million passengers from the current numbers.
The domestic passenger growth in India recorded 40th consecutive month of double-digit growth. IATA reports that for Asia-Pacific carriers, the large markets in India, China and Japan mean that domestic travel accounts for 45% of the region's operations.
Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation (CAPA), an aviation consultancy firm, in October last year had projected that India needs to invest up to $45 billion in order to create additional capacity and related infrastructure for handling of about 500-600 million passengers by 2030 as the existing capacity is likely to saturate within the next five years.
The current capacity of the country's top 17 airports stands at around 298-316.5 million passengers per annum, the report said. The number is expected to increase to 431-463 million in the next few years as and when the existing airport sites which are being developed get complete.
The same report adds that the capacity at major airports including Mumbai, Chennai, Delhi and Kolkata will reach their maximum in the next one to five years; the other top 10 airports such as Pune, Jaipur, Srinagar, Lucknow, Dehradun, etc, are already operating beyond their design capacity, the report added.
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