To decongest major airports, 300 airstrips will get wings

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New Delhi, Apr 15: In a bid to decongest air traffic and reduce the burden on major airports in the country, the civil aviation ministry is taking a number of steps to improve facilities for the private aircraft sector away from major air infrastructure centres.

Among these, the ministry is actively considering developing around 300 airstrips currently lying idle all over the country in order to facilitate the burgeoning private jet industry. The plan as of now is to focus on airstrips near major cities as this would relieve the major airports which have their hands full with the scheduled aviation sector.

The ministry has also formulated a new policy to allow for private airstrips in the country to come up and has forwarded this to the Cabinet for clearance.

“This will allow smoother operations for scheduled traffic in major airports like Delhi where preference has to be given to scheduled passengers,” sources said.

According to ministry data and also industry figures, the demand for corporate jets in India has skyrocketed over the past couple of years and is expected to grow by 25% over the next three years. The industry believes that in the next 10 years, India would be home to one of the world’s largest number of private jet owners.

Civil aviation minister Praful Patel has earlier said that the country will need around 300 to 400 private jets in the next three to five years.

Until a couple of years ago, India had a little more than a score of private aircraft but now there are an estimated 130 private jets flying.

Industry sources said that the demand for private jets could even grow at around 50% on a year-to-year basis given the right incentives. The ministry is likely to offer these airstrips to private companies for modernisation and will initially be used to service smaller aircraft. Whether the airstrips will be allowed to operate commercially like a small airport is unclear.