Delhi Delights - A bright future for one of India's oldest cities

The Lonely Planet Guide describes Delhi as a place where time travel is feasible, where you can step back in time or, just as easily, step into the future. In aviation terms, the past few years have seen Delhi move forward rapidly in time, rising up the ranks of global airports. Just five years ago, Delhi was the 33rd largest airport in the world in terms of airline capacity; now it is ranked 17[1].

We shouldn’t be surprised that this is the case when Delhi is now the second largest city in the world, with a population of 26.5 million[2], and second only to Tokyo. The United Nations expects the Delhi population to reach 36 million by 2030 so it’s good that air transport seems to have finally worked out how to thrive in India’s booming economy.

In the past year, scheduled airline capacity has grown by 9%, according to OAG Schedules Analyser, reaching just shy of 40 million departing seats. This comes on the back of 16% growth in the previous 12 months.  It’s not just the domestic market which is growing but also international air services. Domestic airline capacity makes up 74% of the Delhi market and grew by 10% over the past 12 months, while international capacity grew by 8%.

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