Govt working on ‘template model’ to set up more airports, says Naidu

New Delhi: With increasing air traffic and expanding aircraft fleet, the government is planning to put in place a “template model” for setting up more airports, including those dedicated for cargo and flying training organisations.

India, one of the world’s fastest-growing civil aviation markets, currently has 159 operational airports while domestic airlines have placed orders for over 1,700 planes.

Against this backdrop, Civil Aviation Minister K Rammohan Naidu on Tuesday said the ministry is “actively working

on creating a template model where we can have different kinds of airports”.

The idea is to have different categories of airports, including those for cargo and Flying Training Organisations (FTOs).

On the sidelines of an event in the national capital, Naidu said the government is looking to create a multi-model system and that there are a lot of technical aspects involved.

To a query on whether more airports are set to be privatised, the minister said privatisation is a separate issue, and the efforts are to create more airports,

“Land is a challenge in many places... we are trying to ensure air connectivity to all regions and wherever possible, we can taper down the land requirement... (for instance like having) a small airport where we can operate an ATR,” he noted.

Domestic air passenger traffic stood at little over 16.13 crore in 2024 while the current

fleet of domestic airlines is over 800 planes.

In response to queries related to certain recent incidents involving Air India, Naidu said whenever there are issues, those are discussed and feedback is also sought from the airline concerned.