India's airport map more than doubled after 2014 — from 74 operational airports to over 160 by 2025 — making India the world's third-largest domestic aviation market. The UDAN (Ude Desh ka Aam Nagrik) regional-connectivity scheme, launched in 2016, drove much of this by subsidising flights to smaller towns and reviving dormant airstrips.
Aviation
Aviation
The number of operational airports in India rose from 74 in 2014 to 163 in 2025, and at 166 on 27 July 2026. Much of the growth came under the UDAN regional-connectivity scheme, which added flights to smaller cities and towns.
74 → 165
Operational airports (July 2026)
Operational airports (2014 → 27 July 2026)
| Year | Operational airports |
|---|---|
| 2014 | 74 airports |
| 2022 | 141 airports |
| 2023 | 149 airports |
| 2024 | 157 airports |
| 2025 | 163 airports |
| 2026 | 166 airports |
| Dashed bars are years the source does not publish; the shape between published years is drawn, not measured. | |
2014
0airports
Operational airports
20142026
Since 2014
Added
+92 airports
2014
74 airports
2026
166 airports
Dashed bars are years the source does not publish; the shape between published years is drawn, not measured.
Why it matters More airports widen access to air travel beyond the largest metros and support regional economies and tourism.
- Operational airports: 74 (2014) → 163 (October 2025) → 166 (27 July 2026), counting heliports and water aerodromes throughout
- Growth driven largely by the UDAN regional scheme
- Source: Ministry of Civil Aviation / AAI
History
Notable projects
New greenfield airports anchor the expansion — Noida (Jewar), Navi Mumbai, Dholera and Puri among them — while the Bharatiya Vayuyan Adhiniyam, 2024 replaced the colonial-era Aircraft Act of 1934. Under UDAN, 663 regional routes and 95 airports, heliports and water aerodromes had been operationalised by March 2026, carrying more than 1.5 crore passengers.
How it works
India's aviation boom rests on opening the sector to private airlines and private airport operators, overseen by the regulator DGCA. Big airports are increasingly run by private firms under long public-private concessions (Adani and GMR run several), which build terminals and recover the cost through user fees. To spread flying beyond the metros, the UDAN scheme caps fares on regional routes and pays airlines a subsidy to fly to small-town airports that wouldn't otherwise be viable.
Outlook
The government targets 230 airports by 2030 and 350–400 by 2047, with passenger traffic projected to reach about 715 million a year by 2030. The Modified UDAN scheme (₹28,840 crore, 2026–2036) aims to add 120 destinations and 4 crore passengers, develop 100 airports from existing airstrips, and fund 200 helipads for remote and hilly regions.
By the numbers
74 → 160+ operational airports (2014→2025). 3rd-largest domestic aviation market. 600+ UDAN regional routes; 1.56 crore UDAN passengers. ~7.7 million jobs supported; about 1.5% of GDP. Sources: MoCA, AAI, IATA, PIB.
Data current to: As on 27 July 2026
Source: Ministry of Civil Aviation — operational airports in the country, counting airports, heliports and water aerodromes together, the composition the ministry itself states (Rajya Sabha Q.2407, 8 August 2022: 141 operational airports, "which includes 131 airports, 02 Water aerodromes and 08 Heliports"). No year-wise official table exists; every figure is a dated statement, so only those years are plotted: 74 and 141 from that 2022 reply, 149 (Lok Sabha, 7 December 2023), 157 (PIB, September 2024), 163 (PIB, October 2025, linked) and 166 (Rajya Sabha Starred Q.88, 27 July 2026). 2015 to 2021 have no official country total that could be found, and the two 2020 statements — 109 in February and 125 in September — rest on different definitions, so neither is used. Within 2025 the count was stated as 159 in February, 162 in July, 163 in October and 164 in the ministry's annual report; these are successive readings, not rival figures. The 2014 baseline of 74 is described once as airports with scheduled operations, a narrower wording than the later counts. · link