Our Bureau Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha said on Thursday it is incumbent on the Centre to create infrastructure and regulations to ensure that domestic airlines can do one billion air trips a year.

“A billion air trips include those by helicopters, sea planes and also air rickshaws,” he said at the annual Air Passengers Association of India (APAI) award ceremony here on Thursday. BusinessLine is the association partner for the award.

Pointing out that India is the fastest growing aviation market in the world, Sinha said that in the four years since the Modi government came to power, the number of passenger trips has touched 200 million, against the earlier 100 million.

“Growth in aviation is unprecedented and extraordinary. Flying is also becoming affordable,” he said.

Ajay Singh, promoter of SpiceJet, which won two awards, said that not many people in life get two chances. “SpiceJet 2.0 succeeded due to passengers,” he said, adding that now the airline has reported 34 months of passenger load factor in excess of 90 per cent. Singh is considered responsible for turning around the fortune of SpiceJet after acquiring it back in 2015.

Jet Airways won the award for the Best Full Service Airline (Domestic), at the APAI event.

IndiGo won the award for the Best Low Fare Airline (Domestic) and Best International Low Cost/Budget Airline operating out of/into India.

State-owned Air India was chosen as the Best Full Service International Airline.

Ajay Singh, who is also SpiceJet’s CMD, was given the Special Jury Award for Outstanding Entrepreneur of the civil aviation sector for the decade. SpiceJet also picked up the award for best airline operating under the government’s Regional Connectivity Scheme.

Chatrapati Shivaji International Airport in Mumbai was picked as the best metro airport and as the airport/airline offering best facilities for the sick/elderly/physically challenged. Jaipur and Srinagar were chosen as the best non-metro airports.

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