India’s airports are among the fastest growing in the world

• A report by Routesonline, a global airlines events organise, ranked the Bengaluru airport as the second fastest growing airport in the world in terms of actual passenger growth.
  
• In terms of percentage growth, the Kempegowda International Airport was eight.
  
• Half of the airports in the top 20 are distributed between China and India.
  

India has made no secret about the fact that it wants to become the third largest aviation market in the world by 2026. Rising incomes coupled with UDAN, or the Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS) implemented by the government of India to promote air travel in the country, seems to be paying off with two of the top 10 fastest growing airports in the world are in the country.



The analysis conducted by Routesonline put the Bengaluru’s airport in second place when it comes to actual passenger growth with 16 million passengers during H1 2018 following Tokyo’s Haneda Airport that dominated the top spot with 43 million passengers. Though the difference is substantial, the passenger traffic at Kempegowda International Airport is up by 4 million in comparison to H1 2017.

Experts attribute one of the reasons to be that fact that, historically, Bengaluru hasn’t been well connected via alternative methods of transportation. That being said, in terms of percentage growth the airport came in eighth globally.

Delhi’s Indira Gandhi Airport came in sixth with actual passenger growth of 3 million. Growth is always considered to be positive, but Delhi airport’s increasing traffic has also led an increasing security bill that the Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL) has not been able to pay-off yet.

The civil aviation industry in India is already the third largest in domestic travel. According to the India Brand Equity Foundation, by 2036 India will have around 480 million passengers, which will be greater than Japan and Germany combined. Year on year the passenger traffic has grown at a rate of 16.52% with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 12.72% between 2006 and 2018.

Routesonline, a company that specialises in the quality and standards of aviation, only considered airports that crossed the 2.5 million mark in the first six months of the year.

That being said, India’s aviation sector is set to grow even further if the UDAN international draft scheme is implemented to promote international air travel from smaller cities.