Civil aviation in India

The busiest Indian airports (2015–16)

Civil aviation in India, the world's third-largest civil aviation market as of 2020,[1] traces its origin back to 1911, when the first commercial civil aviation flight took off from a polo ground in Allahabad carrying mail across the Yamuna river to Naini.[2]

Air India is India's national flag carrier, having merged with Indian Airlines in 2007[3] and plays a major role in connecting India with the rest of the world.[4] IndiGo, Air India, Vistara, Air India Express, Akasa Air, and Spicejet are the major carriers in order of their market share.[5] These airlines connect more than 80 cities across India and also operate overseas routes after the liberalisation of Indian aviation. Several other foreign airlines connect Indian cities with other major cities across the globe. However, a large section of country's air transport potential remains untapped, even though the Mumbai–Delhi air corridor is ranked the world's third-busiest route.[6]

India is the third-largest civil aviation market in the world as of 2021.[7] It recorded an air traffic of 376 million passengers in fiscal year 2024, of which 306 million were domestic passengers. The largest airline by international passenger traffic was Jet Airways which transported over 10 million passengers in and out of India in 2016, followed by Air India and AI Express (8.8 million). In third place was Emirates (5.46 million), which is the largest foreign airline operating in India.[8]

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference size1 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ "Blog | National Postal Museum". postalmuseum.si.edu. Archived from the original on 10 October 2021. Retrieved 10 October 2021.
  3. ^ "Air India and Indian Airlines: A Merger Gone Wrong?|Human Resource|Organization Behavior|Case Study|Case Studies". www.icmrindia.org. Retrieved 6 November 2024.
  4. ^ "Fleet Details". Official webpage of Air India. Archived from the original on 23 April 2009. Retrieved 11 June 2009.
  5. ^ "India's air traffic rises 22%, IndiGo continues to lead market share at 63%". cnbctv18.com. 14 September 2023. Archived from the original on 13 December 2023. Retrieved 23 September 2023.
  6. ^ Gupta, Surajeet Das (23 January 2018). "With nearly 47,500 flights, Mumbai-Delhi is world's third busiest air route". Business Standard India. Archived from the original on 26 January 2018. Retrieved 24 January 2018.
  7. ^ "India now world's third largest domestic aviation market: Scindia". Archived from the original on 10 August 2022. Retrieved 25 June 2022.
  8. ^ "Notebandi fails to impact international travel – Times of India". The Times of India. Archived from the original on 22 February 2017. Retrieved 22 February 2017.