India Plans to Open 100 New Airports by 2024
Jennifer Billock October 31, 2019
In a move to boost the economy in India, government officials are planning to open 100 new airports over the next five years; the proposal will also see the launch of 1,000 new routes connecting to smaller cities and villages — the amount of aircraft is expected to double along with a boost in pilots.
Though it’s the third-largest in Asia according to Bloomberg, India’s economy has recently been flagging. It’s at a six-year low and shows no signs of picking back up any time soon. But the government has a plan to get it back up and thriving again. By 2024, the officials plan to have 100 new airports built.
The new airports will allow for 1,000 new routes that are expected to connect to smaller towns and villages. A plane-leasing arrangement is also in discussions. Alongside the new airports and routes will be double the amount of aircraft currently in use in the country, pushing it to 1,200, and a boost in the number of pilots, bringing that up to about 600. One trillion rupees have already been committed to the project.
India in five years will be a far cry from three years ago when the country had 450 runways but only 75 of them could be used. Flying into the other World War-era airstrips was discouraged. Since the start of this year, 38 of those airports are now in use and airlines have contracts to start flights into 63 more of them.
These upgrades will help India reach its goal of being a $5 trillion economy by 2025.
[Featured Image: Shutterstock]
"Alongside the new airports and routes will be double the amount of aircraft currently in use in the country, pushing it to 1,200, and a boost in the number of pilots, bringing that up to about 600." -- so each pilot is going to fly two airplanes?
They don't have enough air pollution already?
being in India for work at least 7 times a year... I see this has a very good move forward.
who is going to operate these routes? All their airlines keep going under.