India’s international air travel hit record 2 crore passengers in October-December | India News

New Delhi: International air travel in and out of India touched a new quarterly high and crossed the two crore mark for the first time in October-December 2025.Despite the suspension of travel to the US during President Trump’s second presidency due to visa issues across categories such as students and H-1B; Canada’s high rejection rate and issuance delays for Indian visa applicants and Air India’s flight reduction after AI 171 Ahmedabad crash last June, saw 7.8 crore people fly to and from India in the last calendar year – up 8% from 7.2 crore the previous year, according to DGCA data.While the share of foreign carriers remained constant at 54% as India has not increased the air traffic rights of most countries whose airlines have a large presence here, there has been a shift in the share of Indian carriers. In the recent past (after the demise of Jet), the Air India Group was the largest in terms of passengers in and out of the subcontinent.

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This changed in the July-September 2025 quarter, since then IndiGo has been flying more than the AI ​​group (see graphic). “About 1.5 crore Indians were issued passports last year. Only 33-35 lakh of these passport holders traveled abroad last year. So we have a large number of passport holders who are interested in traveling but have not yet traveled. Add this to the growing strength of Indian passports with more countries offering visa-on-arrival or visa-free access facilities and visas as a middle class. Over the next several years, direct connectivity between India and new destinations abroad will increase, which will increase the number of Indians in many countries. by increasing demand frequently,” said Anil Kalsi, VP, Travel Agents Federation of India Many neighboring countries such as Vietnam, Malaysia and Thailand attract large Indian tourists.” Elsewhere, demand for Indian tourists is growing significantly.Because Indians spend so much, many countries are increasingly welcoming them with open arms.