A third of foreigners use Delhi airport for coming to India

NEW DELHI: Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport continues to be foreign travellers’ most preferred gateway into India. According to Indian Tourism Statistics 2015, IGI was used by 23.8 lakh foreigners (29.6%), almost equal to the combined count for the Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata airports.
According to the report, over 80 lakh foreigners visited the country in 2015, a growth rate of 4.5% compared to 2014. While 84.5% of the foreign travellers arrived through air, 14.8% through land and the rest through sea.The provisional data for the first six months in 2016 show slightly over 41 lakh foreigners came to India, an 8.9% increase over the same period in the previous year.
Among the foreign countries, USA remained on top with 12.14 lakh arrivals in 2015, followed closely by Bangladesh (11.34 lakh) and the United Kingdom (8.68 lakh). Close to 30% of the foreigners used IGI as the landing point before moving to other parts of the country.
“After modernisation, Delhi’s IGI has become the busiest airport in the country in terms of passenger and freight movement. We are proud to transform the airport experience not just for flyers but also for the entire airport community,” said I Prabhakara Rao, CEO, Delhi International Airport Ltd (DIAL).
IGI airport also crossed the 5-crore passenger mark in 2016, handling 5.5 crore flyers, with Mumbai airport coming second at 4.4 crore. According to the DIAL data, IGI saw a jump of 21% from the 4.6 crore flyers it had handled in 2015.
Constant upgrade in facilities and infrastructure combined with economic airfare rates will bring more foreigners to the country, said an official. While India stands at the 11th position in terms of foreign tourist arrivals in the Asia and Pacific region, its ranking in the world is 40th, reveals the 2015 report.
IGI Airport, currently served by 11 domestic and 51 foreign carriers, connects to 128 destinations, 68 international and 60 domestic.