Lok Sabha Question No. 843 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2022-07-21
Subject: Growth of Domestic Air Passenger Traffic
Ministry: CIVIL AVIATION
Asked by: Kotha Prabhakar  Reddy

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF CIIL AVIATION LOK SABHA

UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 843 (To be answered on the July 2022) 21st

## GROWTH OF DOMESTIC AIR PASSENGER TRAFFIC

843.

SHRI KOTHA PRABHAKAR REDDY

## Will the Minister of CIVIL AVIATION

be pleased to state:-

- (a) whether the domestic air passenger traffic is estimated to have grown by about 59 percent year-on-year to 84 million in Financial Year 2022-23, although it is still about 40 per cent lower compared with the pre-pandemic level and if s0, the details thereof along with the reasons therefor;
- (c) if so, the details thereof and the steps being taken to overcome such challenges?
- (b) whether there are other challenges for the industry that may affect the profitability of the sector; and

## ANSWER

Minister of State in the Ministry of CIVIL AVIATION

(GEN. (DR) V. K SINGH (RETD))

- (a) to (c) During 2021-22, Indian airports carried around 83 million domestic passengers registering a growth rate of 59% aS compared to 2020-21.

As compared to the pre-pandemic domestic passenger traffic of around 136 million (2019-20), the traffic in 2021-22 has declined by 39%. Details are enclosed in the Annexure.

Challenges that affect the profitability of the domestic aviation sector include high cost of aviation fuel` foreign exchange variations, constrained airport inirastructure and highly price-sensitive customers etc.

Some of the steps that the Government has taken overcome the challenges are as follows:

- (i) Several States/ UTs that imposed a high rate of VAT on aviation fuel were requested to rationalise the same 16 States/UTs responded positively including: Andaman and Nicobar Islands Arunachal Pradesh; Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh,

Jammu and Kashmir\_Jharkhand; Karnataka, Ladakh, Madhya Pradesh, Manipur, Mizoram; Tripura, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand:

- (iii) A conducive aircraft leasing and financing environment has been enabled;
- (ii) Goods and Services Tax (GST) rate has been reduced from 18% to 5% for domestic Maintenance; Repair and Overhaul (MRO) services,
- (iv) Improvement in air navigation infrastructure is carried out to enable better utilization of airspace and airport capacity: being

(vii) Government of India (Gol) has accorded 'in-principle' approval for across the country. So eight Greenfieid airports namely, Sindhudurg and Shirdi\_in Maharashtra, Durgapur in West Bengal, Pakyong in Sikkim, Kannur in Kerala, Orvakal in Andhra Pradesh; Kalaburagi in Karnataka and Kushinagar in Uttar Pradesh have been operationalised: far,

- (v) To reduce congestion at airports and to address the challenge of suboptimal infrastructure, Airports Authority of India (AAT) has taken up development of pew and existing airports with & projected capital expenditure of around Rs; 25,000 crores in next five years: This includes construction of new terminals, expansion and modification of existing terminals, expansion and/ or strengthening of existing runways, aprons Airport Navigation Services (ANS) infrastructure; control towers and ' technical blocks etc. (vi) The Public Private Partnership (PPP) airports at Delhi, Hyderabad and Bengaluru are undertaking major expansion projects of around Rs. 30,000 crores by 2025. Additionally, Rs. 36,000 crores have been planned for investment in the development of new Greenfield airports across the country under PPP mode.

## Annexure in reply to Lok Sabha Unstarred Question 843

Domestic passenger throughput & year on year growth rate for all Indian airports taken together

| Year                                      | All India pax in million_   | % Change over previous Year   |
|-------------------------------------------|-----------------------------|-------------------------------|
| 2019-20                                   | 136.54                      | -0.4%                         |
| 2020-21                                   | 52.54                       | -62%                          |
| 2021-22                                   | 83.34                       | 59%                           |
| 2021-22 % Change over 2019-20( Pre Covid) | -39%                        |                               |