Budget 2023-24 : AVIATION Related Plan for INDIA: FM announces 50 new airports, helipads, and aerodromes.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced during the 2023-24 Union Budget that fifty (50) new airports, helipads, aerodromes, etc will be built to improve connectivity across the country.

The FM said, “50 additional airports, aerodromes, helipads, and water routes to be built to enhance connectivity.”

On Tuesday, the Economic Survey noted that the country’s civil aviation sector has “great potential.” 

The survey said, “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,”

It further noted, “The current financial year has further shown a rebound, with both passenger and cargo movement close to the pre-COVID-19 levels. The total number of passengers carried in December 2022 stood at 150.1 lakh, which was 106.4 per cent of the pre-Covid level.”

Moreover, President Droupadi Murmu said during her first address to the joint sitting of the Parliament on Tuesday that India has become the third-largest aviation market in the world. She also said that the country’s aviation sector is growing rapidly, with the number of airports increasing to 147 from 74 in 2014.

Previously, Jyotiraditya Scindia, the Union Civil Aviation Minister noted that the number of airports in India has gone up 100 per cent since 2014.

While addressing the inaugural ceremony of a flight between Bhubaneswar and Rourkela under the RCS UDAN scheme, he said, “There were only 74 airports in the country till 2014, today this number including heliports and water aerodromes has increased to 148 which is 100 per cent increase in eight years.” 

He further added, “Now that record has been broken and four lakh fifty thousand passengers traveled in a day. In December 2022, more than four lakh passengers traveled each day of the month.”