Nearly 15 aircraft added per month to ease passenger traffic: Hardeep Singh Puri

Union Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Thursday said that 10-15 aircraft are being added per month to deal with the increasing passenger traffic.

"Today we have in air 690 aircraft. We are adding 10-15 aircraft per month. We are looking forward to a scenario when we will have 2000 registered aircraft flying," said Puri while addressing a press conference here.

He said that Delhi Airport alone deals with 70 million passengers per annum and both Delhi and Mumbai Airport put together roughly deal with 34 per cent of passengers in the country.

"In 1975, when I went on my first posting to Tokyo, Palam then used to deal with 1.9 million passengers per annum. Today Delhi Airport deals with 70 million passengers per annum. Both the private Airports, Delhi and Mumbai when put together deal roughly with 34 per cent of overall passengers in the country," said the Minister.

"When Jet Airways ceased operation we had 540 aircraft in the sky but a false narrative was floated that Indian skies will be adversely affected. We are adding new aircraft to maintain fleet as per the traffic requirement," said Puri.