Back Air traffic grew by 35.5% in April-Sept
Our Bureau
Non-metro airports
During the year, the Committee on Infrastructure approved the task force report for development of 35 non-metro airports.
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The Survey indicates that while international passenger traffic grew by 15.8 per cent, domestic air passenger traffic posted 44.6 per cent growth.
The air cargo market recorded growth of 12 per cent, with international cargo carriage growing by 13.8 per cent and domestic cargo carriage by 8.7 per cent.
During the year, the Government set in motion a number of initiatives to improve connectivity, including awarding the contract for modernisation of Delhi and Mumbai airports to consortia led by the GMR and GVK groups respectively.
In addition, the Committee on Infrastructure approved the task force report for development of 35 non-metro airports.
The modernisation of these airports would be done by the Airports Authority of India (AAI).
The 35 airports to be taken up for modernisation include those at Coimbatore, Madurai, Tiruchi, Thiruvananthapuram, Visakhapatnam, Mangalore, Pune and Port Blair.
The year also saw the Government issue no-objection certificates for the import or acquisition of 42 aircraft by scheduled operators, 62 aircraft by non-scheduled operators and 31 aircraft by private operators.
Besides, in-principle approval for 135 aircraft was also granted to scheduled operators.
After a gap of several years, Indian signed an agreement to purchase 43 Airbus aircraft during the year, with the first aircraft joining the fleet before the end of the year.
Air India, which is to purchase 68 Boeing aircraft, also received the first aircraft of the order during the year.
The number of airlines operating in the country also increased, with at least two - Go Air and IndiGo - starting operations.
During 2006, private sector airlines introduced 22 new routes, the Survey added.
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