Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Monday during a video conference at ‘Deccan Dialogue’ organised by the Indian School of Business (ISB) stated that air travel would reach pre-COVID levels by the end of the year or early next year.
“We opened civil aviation on May 25, a good two months and two days after we have completely locked down with 30,000 passengers on a day.Two days or three days ago, I think just before Diwali, we carried 225,000 and with a scale at which we are opening up in a calibrated manner, we have already opened up 70 per cent capacity,†“I am confident that by the end of the year, by December 31 or soon thereafter, means a week or two weeks thereafter, we will be back to pre-COVID levels,†he said.
But, reaching the pre-COVID levels requires that the existing safety protocols are strengthened further.Puri said he was committed to bringing aviation GDP back to India.Observing that the value of traffic between India and the United States is roughly USD seven billion annually, he said the Indian carriers get a mere 17 per cent out of that traffic.Civil aviation would get a boost in the next few years with the country getting 100 new airports and the fleet size reaching up to 2,000 from around 750 now, he said.
There was a massive opportunity for investors across the aviation ecosystem and aviation is a critical driver of economic growth across airports, airlines, ground- handling and others.
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