Hey, there’s some exciting news about how India’s aviation landscape is changing! You know how international flights used to be mostly a big-city thing? Well, that’s starting to shift in a really interesting way.
First off, India’s now got 33 airports handling international flights, with Port Blair being the newest addition this winter. They’re starting flights to Kuala Lumpur three times a week with AirAsia – pretty cool for the islanders!
The numbers for this November are looking pretty impressive. We’re talking about 4,382 international flights per week, which is a solid 12% jump from last year. But here’s where it gets really interesting – while the big cities are still getting the lion’s share of flights, it’s actually the smaller cities that are seeing the most dramatic growth.
Take Guwahati, Vizag, and Surat, for example – they’re absolutely crushing it with more than double the number of international flights compared to last year! And cities like Coimbatore, Chandigarh, and Jaipur aren’t far behind, with about 1.5 times more flights. Sure, they started from a smaller base (Vizag and Guwahati only had four flights a week last year), but hey, progress is progress, right?
The big players are still growing too, just not as dramatically. Delhi’s adding 90 more weekly international flights, Mumbai’s getting 81 more, and Bengaluru’s adding 60. Delhi’s still the king of international travel, handling about 24% of all international departures, with Mumbai following at 19% and Chennai at 8%.
There are a few interesting shifts too – Kolkata’s now in eighth place, pretty much staying where it was last winter. And there’s a funny situation in Goa where the old Dabolim airport is seeing fewer flights, but the new Mopa airport is picking up the slack, so the state isn’t losing out overall.
It’s pretty exciting to see how air travel is becoming more accessible across the country, isn’t it? Looks like the dream of international connectivity isn’t just for the big cities anymore!
