Delhi airport may get more traffic volume than London airport by 2020: Report

The Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGI) in the national capital could overtake London’s Heathrow airport in traffic volume by 2020 financial year, according to the Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation (CAPA) India report.

According to the Sydney-based global aviation report, passenger volume at the IGI airport is likely to cross 80 million passengers in 2019-20.

In its latest report, India’s largest airport handled over 65 million passengers in the 2017-18 fiscal. At present, it handles over 12,00 flight operations a day, making it to the lists of the top 20 busiest airports across the globe.

Also Read | Verdict on Hyderabad twin bomb blasts to be announced today 

“India’s largest airport, Delhi, which handled 65.7 million passengers in FY2018, is likely to cross 80 million passengers in FY2020, which would see it approach or even overtake London Heathrow in traffic volumes,” the report said.

The Indira Gandhi International Airport also is the seventh busiest airport in Asia, beating airports in South Korea, Singapore and Thailand.

As per the Sydney-based report, during the first quarter of this year, air traffic at the IGI airport was up by 17.1 per cent, and slight higher rate are expected at the end of the year.

Read More | Vijay Mallya gets three weeks’ time to file his reply on ED’s plea seeking fugitive offender's tag for him 

“That would mean that India’s airport system will handle 50 million incremental passengers this year, which is more than all of India’s airports handled in total in financial year 2004,” the global aviation research report stated.

Earlier this year, the Airports Council International had adjudged the airport as number one in the world in the category of over 40 million passengers per annum.

(With inputs from agencies)