Level of passengers’ travel in India has now surpassed pre-Covid levels

New Delhi: Ministry of Civil Aviation Senior Economic Advisor Piyush Srivastava on Wednesday said the level of passengers’ travel has now surpassed the pre-Covid levels.

During a media interaction at an event in New Delhi, the senior economic advisor of the ministry said, “It goes to show that the aviation industry and the Indian economy are on the right trajectory.” While speaking in terms of cargo business, he said there was a bit of lag. He said globally too, it was suffering. “In Europe, there is a slowdown. In the US, there is no growth,” he added.

For the cargo business, he said it now depends on the domestic cargo business since the international business is stagnant.

Piyush Srivastava said, “Domestic cargo business contributes one-third of the total business.” He said cargo business hasn’t reached the pre-Covid level but it was slowly reaching the level.

Speaking on the lines of Go First case, he said, “The Go First case has gone to the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT). So, we will wait for the outcome.” He also said, “I will not like to comment on something that is already with the Tribunal.”

On the developments in Krishi Udan, he said, “We had given concessions on the navigation charges, etc, to all the airport that we had taken in the Krishi Udan scheme. Now, we have opened 21 defence airports, so Krishi Udan’s reach has expanded.”

Piyush Srivastava said, “It depends on the industry to take advantage of this situation. The industry has to bring in the filters and get the benefit of the concessions available on offer.”