The Return Of Domestic Travel Has Made Delhi's IGI The World's Fifth Busiest Airport

IndiGo, which flies six out of every ten domestic passengers, was the ninth largest airline in terms of seat deployment in December for the same reasons. According to UK-based aviation consultancy group OAG, India-UAE is currently the world's fourth busiest country pair for international travel, despite limited capacity and high rates under the bubble system. Only four airports are ahead of IGI (33.5 lakh) in terms of seat deployment this month: Atlanta (44 lakh), Dubai (35.4 lakh), Dallas Forth Worth (35.3 lakh), and Guangzhou (35.3 lakh) (35.1 lakh), reported The Times Of India. London Heathrow, New York JFK, Paris CDG, Tokyo Haneda, and Chicago O'Hare are among the OAG's lower-ranked hubs.

The restart of planned international flights, which was supposed to begin on December 15, has been postponed due to Omicron.

An airline official mentioned that while more research is needed, what has been noticed so far about Omicron is that it is not causing serious health concerns. He also remarked that perhaps, if that's proved and backed up by data, regular international flights can resume with all necessary pandemic safeguards in place, and the aviation industry can recover from its near-collapse.

Meanwhile, according to OAG data, IndiGo is the world's eighth largest airline this month, with roughly 50,000 planned carefully. With 63,000 flights, Irish ultra-low-cost carrier Ryanair is ranked seventh, preceded by IndiGo with 47,947. As per a UK air consultant, Hardly IndiGo and Ryanair are conducting significantly more flights this month than they were in December 2019.