New Delhi, April 22

India has surpassed pre-Covid level numbers of domestic passengers per day and there is strong positive forecast for coming years, Union Civil Aviation Minister, Jyotiraditya Scindia said.

The civil aviation sector, which was significantly hit by the coronavirus pandemic, is on the recovery path and domestic passenger traffic has picked up in recent times.

On April 17, the domestic air passenger traffic crossed the 4 lakh mark for the first time in two years.

According to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), the country’s scheduled domestic flight operations ferried 1.06 crore passengers last month. In March 2021, the traffic numbers stood at 78.22 lakh.

On a sequential basis, the sector had ferried 76.96 lakh passengers in February this year.

“Passengers carried by domestic airlines during January-March 2022 were 248 lakh as against 233.83 lakh during the corresponding period of previous year, thereby registering annual growth of 6.06 per cent and monthly growth of 36.74 per cent,” the DGCA said in its March data report.

Carbon mapping of airports

Scindia in a series of tweets added that It has been mandated that 96 AAI airports will work on 100 per cent renewable energy by 2024. Moreover, bid document for PPP projects will also include the same clause.

“India will undertake carbon mapping of every airport and draw green plan for each of them for short term and long-term goals,” the Union Minister said.

While pointing out that India was acting as responsible global citizen and pursuing eco-friendly policies, Scindia said, the country’s carbon emission is very less as compared to the global average. “Indian aircrafts are adopting energy efficient means to reduce carbon emission. Some of the operators have already experimented with sustainable aviation fuel,” he tweeted.

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