NEW DELHI: More people are now flying direct between India and rest of the world than ever before. The massive increase in international flights by both IndiGo and Tata’s Air India Group, apart from new player Akasa and new international airlines flying to the country, has changed the nature of traffic with more passengers now travelling on non-stops rather than making one or two stops at a hub airport, says UK-based air consultancy firm OAG while comparing pre-Covid 2019 with 2023.

In 2023, India’s international air traffic was about 6.5 crore, only 6 lakh less than 2019 numbers. About “3.7 crore passengers made a non-stop trip in 2023, 20 lakh more than in 2019. Indirect passengers dropped by 25 lakh to 2.7 crore in the same period. This equates to a shift from 54% of passengers travelling direct to 57%,” OAG says. Not only did more people fly direct to and from India, 10 lakh passengers used hubs in India for transfers. For example, someone travelling between Kathmandu and New York via Delhi. Also, with many countries like Vietnam and Indonesia now having direct flights to and from India, there’s no longer a need to fly one-stop unless someone opts for the latter.
“An analysis of which hubs lost traffic from 2019 to 2023 shows Middle Eastern hubs losing 10 lakh indirect passengers. Other hubs lost 28 lakh indirect passengers and in fact, Indian hubs gained 10 lakh indirect passengers,” OAG says. In these four years, Indian airlines added 52 new international routes.
Since 2014, the Modi govt has been conservative about increasing bilaterals (flying rights) with foreign countries with the twin objective of protecting desi airlines and supporting the creation of global hubs in the country.