The civil aviation industry, which was hit hard by the global meltdown and high fuel cost, showed signs of recovery in 2009, with the domestic passenger traffic rising six per cent to 43.3 million, the Economic Survey said on Thursday.
"Signs of recovery became visible in the second half of 2009. The scheduled domestic passenger traffic has increased from 40.8 million in 2008 to 43.3 million in 2009. . .," said the Economic Survey 2009-10, tabled in Parliament.
Taking note of the overall expansion work on various airports across the country, it said that of the 35 non-metro airports planned, 24 have been identified for city-side development through public private partnership.
On the Rs 20,000-crore (Rs 200-billion) modernisation of Delhi and Mumbai airports, the survey said work is in progress, adding that while the Delhi Airport project is likely to be completed by 2010, work at Mumbai airport will be over by 2012.
The Survey added that apart from plans to construct greenfield airports in the northeastern region, costing Rs 309.46 crore (Rs 3.09 billion), the Airports Authority of India has also taken up development of Kolkata and Chennai airports at a cost of Rs 3,750 crore (Rs 37.5 billion).
On Air India and Indian Airlines merger, despite widespread criticism from various analysts, the survey pointed out that it has helped achieve economies of scale and reduced overlaps in routes.
It also said the combined procurement has availed volume discounts in areas such as fuel, in-flight service items and insurance.
On bringing transparency in airfare advertising, the Survey pointed out that the government has amended rules, 'wherein airlines shall display tariff in a conspicuous manner to show the total amount payable by a passenger and the complete break up of the total amount'.
Besides, while the director general civil aviation has started monitoring tariffs of scheduled domestic airlines, a group has been constituted comprising tariff analysis experts to carry out the analysis of fares on major routes on daily basis.
The survey further noted that the first phase of the India-USA Aviation Cooperation Programme, signed in 2007, was completed in 2008 and its second phase is under way.
