Union Minister of Civil Aviation Jyotiraditya Scindia made the announcement in a pre-recorded video message on the second day of the 67th annual convention of the Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI) being hosted in Colombo.
“Cargo movement has also been smoothed, and with the assistance from both governments, we are operating a direct flight from Chennai to Jaffna,” he added.
In December 2022, India and Sri Lanka resumed flight services between Chennai and Jaffna, three years after the island nation discontinued the services due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“In the last nine years, India has both advanced and expanded, doubling the number of airports from 74 in 2014 to 148 today, from March-June 2023, the average international daily flights from India increased from 1,002 to 1,042 up nearly 4 per cent,” Scindia said.
“And, similarly, international passengers for the same period have increased by 5.3 per cent, with approximately 1.8 lakh passengers boarding international flights from India on a daily basis,” he noted.
“As we evolve, we are also transforming towards a better quality service, better infrastructure, greater last-mile connectivity, and thus more cross-border tourism,” Scindia said.
“We have already started making our mark in the next inflexion point of the industry through three key enablers,” Scindia said, pointing at the operations of a large number of routes, the use of helicopters for last-mile connectivity, and the focus on new technology. He added that drone technology is being used to deliver medicines and pesticides in India.
