Delhi Airport 7th busiest in Asia, among top 20 globally

Delhi's Indira Gandhi International airport (IGIA) touched an all-time high of 63.5 million passengers in calendar year 2017 making it the 7th busiest airports in Asia and among the top 20 busiest airports across the world. With this, the IGIA has also surpassed Changi, Incheon and Bangkok airports in terms of passenger growth.

Delhi International Airport Ltd (Dial), the airport operator said that over the last few years, Delhi airport has emerged as the new aviation hub in South-East Asia by adding 32 million passengers, 15 international carriers and 4 domestic carriers with 27 new international destinations.

Reacting on the milestone achievement, Dial CEO I Prabhakara Rao said that the addition of new routes in domestic and international sectors by major airlines and a steep rise in the flow of transit traffic has helped Delhi airport emerge as one of the busiest airports in Asia and among the top 20 in the world.

"Airlines see opportunities in Delhi airport as it has a large catchment area, while most other airports have constraints. Today Delhi airport has emerged as a new aviation hub in South-East Asia. While in 2010, transit traffic accounted for 2.3 percent of all traffic in Delhi, it rose to over 20 percent in 2017. Execution of the expansion works under the proposed Master Plan will further enhance the facilities enabling air traffic to grow at a faster pace," Rao said.