PM Modi opens Goa’s 2nd airport, says ‘ease of travel’ up in last 8 years

PANAJI: PM Narendra Modi on Sunday said that “ease of travel” has increased tremendously in the last eight years with the not-so-affluent sections of the society also now looking at air travel as their first option thanks to affordable flights, reports Saurabh Sinha. Inaugurating Goa’s second airport at Mopa on Sunday, he said India had got only 70 airports from 1947 to 2014, and that number has doubled since then.

“In 2000, India had 6 crore air travellers. Before Covid hit, the annual air traffic had increased to 14 crore. Of this, one crore people flew thanks to the “Ude Desh ka Aam Naagrik” (subsidised UDAN) scheme. Today we are the world’s third largest aviation market globally.,” Modi said.

The Mopa airport has been named after former defence minister, late Manohar Parrikar, whom Modi referred as ‘my dear friend and colleague’.