India/Australia: Giant airports, more routes: The new powerhouse in air travel
India’s aviation sector is on a roll. In the period January-November 2023, the country’s airlines carried 25% more domestic passengers than in the corresponding period in 2022. In mid-2023, national airline Air India ordered 250 aircraft from Airbus and another 220 from Boeing, worth a total of $US70b at list prices. That order came hot on the heels of an order from India’s leading low-cost IndiGo airline for 500 new Airbus aircraft. In January 2024, Akasa Air, India’s newest airline, announced an order for 150 Boeing 737s. Alongside its commercial airlines, government and private industry are spending big on aviation infrastructure and now there is barely a corner of the country beyond the reach of air travel. If you want, you can take a one-hour flight from Delhi over the Himalayas and land at Leh, capital of Buddhist-infused Ladakh, and stagger off the plane into rarefied air at an altitude of 3256 metres. Two-way air traffic between Australia and India is also booming. In the 12 months to November 2023, 387,000 Indian residents visited Australia, a rise of 40% over the previous 12 months. In the 2022-23 financial year, 435,000 Australian residents visited India. In the previous financial year the figure was 61,000. Qantas halted its non-stop services between Australia and India in 2012 while Air India maintained the Australia-India connection, only pausing during the pandemic. On November 15, 2021 Air India resumed its thrice-weekly Sydney-New Delhi service. Three weeks later, Qantas began operating a non-stop flight between Delhi and Sydney. In the week beginning December 15, 2023, Air India began a thrice-weekly service between Melbourne and Mumbai. This is the first non-stop flight between any Australian city and India’s financial powerhouse since Qantas stopped its Mumbai flights more than a decade ago. Air India operates a non-stop service between Sydney and Delhi but Qantas no longer does. Qantas flight 67 from Sydney makes a stop in Bengaluru, India’s IT capital. Passengers continuing to Delhi are carried aboard an IndiGo flight. Story has more.<br/>
https://portal.staralliance.com/cms/news/hot-topics/2024-02-12/star/india-australia-giant-airports-more-routes-the-new-powerhouse-in-air-travel
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India/Australia: Giant airports, more routes: The new powerhouse in air travel
India’s aviation sector is on a roll. In the period January-November 2023, the country’s airlines carried 25% more domestic passengers than in the corresponding period in 2022. In mid-2023, national airline Air India ordered 250 aircraft from Airbus and another 220 from Boeing, worth a total of $US70b at list prices. That order came hot on the heels of an order from India’s leading low-cost IndiGo airline for 500 new Airbus aircraft. In January 2024, Akasa Air, India’s newest airline, announced an order for 150 Boeing 737s. Alongside its commercial airlines, government and private industry are spending big on aviation infrastructure and now there is barely a corner of the country beyond the reach of air travel. If you want, you can take a one-hour flight from Delhi over the Himalayas and land at Leh, capital of Buddhist-infused Ladakh, and stagger off the plane into rarefied air at an altitude of 3256 metres. Two-way air traffic between Australia and India is also booming. In the 12 months to November 2023, 387,000 Indian residents visited Australia, a rise of 40% over the previous 12 months. In the 2022-23 financial year, 435,000 Australian residents visited India. In the previous financial year the figure was 61,000. Qantas halted its non-stop services between Australia and India in 2012 while Air India maintained the Australia-India connection, only pausing during the pandemic. On November 15, 2021 Air India resumed its thrice-weekly Sydney-New Delhi service. Three weeks later, Qantas began operating a non-stop flight between Delhi and Sydney. In the week beginning December 15, 2023, Air India began a thrice-weekly service between Melbourne and Mumbai. This is the first non-stop flight between any Australian city and India’s financial powerhouse since Qantas stopped its Mumbai flights more than a decade ago. Air India operates a non-stop service between Sydney and Delhi but Qantas no longer does. Qantas flight 67 from Sydney makes a stop in Bengaluru, India’s IT capital. Passengers continuing to Delhi are carried aboard an IndiGo flight. Story has more.<br/>
