The Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGI) here could overtake London’s Heathrow airport in traffic volume by the 2020 financial year, a Sydney-based aviation research body has said.

In its latest report, the Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation (CAPA) India said that IGI airport, which handled 65.7 million passengers in FY18, is likely to cross 80 million passenger by FY20.

“India’s largest airport, Delhi, which handled 65.7 million passengers in FY2018, is likely to cross 80 million passengers in FY2020, which would see it approach or even overtake London Heathrow in traffic volumes,” the report said.

The IGI airport handles over 1,200 flight operations a day. Earlier this year, the Airports Council International had adjudged the airport as number one in the world in the category of over 40 million passengers per annum. At present, it remains among the top 20 busiest airports globally.

Talking about the overall growth of airports in the country, the CAPA report said that in FY18, India’s airports handled 309 million passengers, which was 16.5 per cent rise year-on-year.

During the first quarter of this year, traffic was up 17.1 per cent, and a similar or possibly even slightly higher rate is expected for the full year, it said.

“That would mean that India’s airport system will handle 50 million incremental passengers this year, which is more than all of India’s airports handled in total in financial year 2004,” the report said.

Higher losses

The report also said the domestic airlines industry is expected to post higher losses at $1.65-1.90 billion this fiscal, up from projected $430-460 million, amid the headwinds caused by higher costs and lower yields.

Besides, airlines need to raise over $3 billion in the near term based on June quarter estimates, with full-service carriers requiring around $2.6 billion.

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