Air India’s Nipun Aggarwal is probably right that many of India’s airports are underused. But 'underutilised' is a diagnosis, not an explanation. The figure of 120 out of 160 airports points to an infrastructure gap, an airline-economics gap and a regional-mobility gap that cannot be solved merely by adding flights.
Aggarwal, Air India’s chief commercial and transformation officer and Air India Express chairman, said only around 40 airports operate at roughly 70-80 percent utilisation. He described the remaining 120, mostly outside major metros and cities, as having very low use. He argued that stronger Tier-2 and Tier-3 connectivity, smaller aircraft and lower flying costs could unlock demand.
The assessment needs context. India has more than 160 airports, heliports and water aerodromes, while the UDAN regional-connectivity programme had operationalised 663 routes linking 95 unserved or underserved airports by February 2026. A route can be launched, however, without becoming a dependable long-term service.
What 'underused' can mean. Airport utilisation is not a single measure. It may refer to passengers, flight movements, cargo, terminal capacity, runway hours, aircraft stands, seat occupancy or revenue. An airport can have an empty terminal yet provide essential medical evacuation, disaster-relief, defence, search-and-rescue or weather-diversion value.
A useful audit should separate commercial weakness from operational constraints like low load factors and weak fare revenue, aircraft mismatch, scheduling, weak surface access and night operational limits etc.
Aggarwal’s call for regional jets or smaller aircraft identifies a real issue. A route with demand for 25 passengers per departure cannot reliably support a 180-seat narrow-body aircraft. But smaller aircraft are not automatically cheaper. Their fuel burn per passenger can be higher, and India has limited fleets of modern 20–80-seat aircraft available for sustained regional schedules.
An airport needs more than a runway and terminal. If it lacks night-landing capability, reliable weather information, rescue-and-fire-fighting cover, fuel supply, trained air-traffic staff or secure ground handling, airlines cannot schedule it with confidence.
Road access is equally important. An airport 50 kilometres from a city without reliable transport may save little time compared with rail or road, especially when passengers must arrive early for security. The relevant measure is not flight time; it is door-to-door time and reliability.
The government has approved a modified UDAN scheme for 2026–27 to 2035–36, with an outlay of Rs 28840 crore. The programme proposes support for 100 airports at existing unserved airstrips, operations-and-maintenance assistance for about 441 aerodromes, more than 200 helipads and acquisition of indigenous aviation assets.
The affordability constraint
Aggarwal also argued that aviation remains heavily taxed and that lower flying costs could create 'disruptive growth'. His point is commercially logical: lower fares can widen the passenger base, particularly outside major cities.
The real lesson in Aggarwal’s 120-airport claim is not that India built too many airports. It is that an airport is the final node in a transport system. It becomes useful when aircraft, crews, fuel, fire services, weather capability, schedules, roads, passengers and local economic activity all arrive at the same time.