Indian airports could see total number of domestic and international passengers return to pre-pandemic levels by the end of financial year 2023, according to a forecast by the Airports Authority of India (AAI).
In FY20, various airports saw a total of 34.1 crore passengers. During the pandemic, these numbers fell by almost 66% in FY21 to 11.5 crore passengers.
The AAI estimated that a total of 19.9 crore passengers for this fiscal. Its forecast indicates that the traffic could be almost at pre-pandemic levels by the end of FY23 and reach 33.8 crore - 99.1% of FY20 passenger numbers. From March 27, India has also removed restrictions on international flights, allowing airlines to plan pre-pandemic level of flight operations. This information was provided by Minister of State for Civil Aviation V.K. Singh in Rajya Sabha.
