Budget 2018: India plans to expand airport capacity 5-fold as traffic rises

Apart from augmenting airports in the main metropolitan cities of the country, the government will connect 56 unserved airports and 31 unserved helipads

India plans to increase its airport capacity more than fivefold to help handle a billion trips as carriers in the surging market await delivery of over 900 aircraft. Airline stocks surged.

The proposal is part of an infrastructure boost announced by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Thursday in the federal budget for the year starting April 1. The government will raise spending on public projects by 20 per cent for the year to 6 trillion rupees ($94 billion).

Apart from augmenting airports in the main metropolitan cities of the country, the government will connect 56 unserved airports and 31 unserved