Plan to raise Pune airport traffic to 16 million\, more flights in offing

Plan to raise Pune airport traffic to 16 million, more flights in offing

Union Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri was speaking at the valedictory session on the third day of the Asia Economic Dialogue, organised by Pune International Center (PIC) in association with Ministry of External Affairs (MEA).

By: Express News Service | Pune | Published: March 2, 2020 4:43:00 am
Pune airport, Pune airport flights, Hardeep Sing Puri Pune, Pune city news Union Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri

Union Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said Sunday that while Pune Airport is handling nine million passengers per year, the ministry wants to increase the traffic to up to 16 million. He also hinted that more flights were in the offing from Pune Airport.

Puri was speaking at the valedictory session on the third day of the Asia Economic Dialogue, organised by Pune International Center (PIC) in association with Ministry of External Affairs (MEA). The conference was on the theme ‘Asia and the Emerging International Trading System’.

“Today, India is the world’s third largest domestic civil aviation market. Our passenger throughput is 450 million per year. We will be looking at billions of passengers in a year in a very short period of time. We are also looking at adding another 100 airports in a few years’ time,” said Puri. He added that the aviation sector in India was growing and carriers were adding aircrafts.

“Talking about economic slowdown, one of our major airlines closed operations between December 2018 and April 2019. At that time, we had less than 600 civil aviation aircraft…and today, we are at more than 750, we’re adding two or three aircraft per week, one of our careers has got 300 aircraft on order. Does this look like an economic slowdown?” said Puri.

Talking about the economic situation, Puri said, “We are a growing economy, the fifth largest in the world, which seeks to transit from a $2.80 trillion economy today to a $5 trillion economy by 2024-25, and to $10 trillion dollars by 2030.”

Earlier in the day, Minister for Tourism, Environment and Protocol Aaditya Thackeray said, “We, as youth of this country and as the Maharashtra government, are looking to grow and move ahead from 2020. It is the time for us to be a superpower, it means in different perspectives, different professions and almost in all walks of life. We are the state which is open to ideas, trade and growth. We are the state where everything is there, in terms of skills, thoughts and education.”