In order to keep pace with the double-digit growth in air traffic, Union Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha has said that the government is developing a comprehensive 25-year masterplan for airports in India. He also said that they are developing a comprehensive masterplan for airports because air traffic continues to grow strongly and will continue to do so. He also noted that even if domestic air traffic grows at 10 percent they will see massive requirement as far as airport capacity is concerned.
Sinha further expressed his hopes that the passenger traffic is expected to double, if not quadruple in the next 20-25 years and that is the planning horizon the government is aiming at. He also pointed out that the proposed masterplan will study various ways to deal with the growing traffic, including revised and refined agreements with airport operators, providing attractive opportunities for operating brownfield airports, offering multiple brownfield airports as part of a package for bidding as well as scaling up the Airports Authority of India.
As per International Air Transport Association’s (IATA) 20-year passenger forecast, by the year 2036, India would be the third fastest growing market in the world, with an expected addition of 337 million new passengers from 141 million passengers in 2016. Furthermore, Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu underlined the need to improve safety and security in the country’s aviation sector.