June 11, 2026

MK Stalin meets P Benjamin (Image/PTI) NEW DELHI: Former AIADMK minister P Benjamin has joined the DMK along with his supporters, in a significant political shift that adds to the continuing exodus of leaders from the opposition party in Tamil Nadu.Benjamin joined the ruling DMK in the presence of party president and chief minister MK Stalin at the party headquarters Anna Arivalayam in Chennai on Wednesday.He was accompanied by several AIADMK office-bearers, including Tiruvallur Central Party District Women’s Wing secretary Yamini Ilayaraja, district students’ wing secretary Dinesh and other functionaries who also switched sides.Senior DMK leaders TR Baalu, A Raja and RS Bharathi were present at the event.Benjamin, a former deputy mayor of the Chennai Corporation, had served as a minister in the AIADMK governments led by J Jayalalithaa and later Edappadi K Palaniswami. His departure comes amid a series of defections from the party in recent months.The AIADMK leadership has been dealing with internal challenges, including reported dissent among some MLAs in recent political developments, further weakening the party’s organisational strength.Benjamin’s exit follows a wider pattern of defections, with several former AIADMK ministers, including MC Sampath, NR Sivapathi, Kadambur C Raju and Udumalai K Radhakrishnan, recently joining the ruling TVK. Last month, former AIADMK MLA VNP Venkatraman also joined the DMK in Chennai. Get the latest India news and live updates. Download the TOI App.About the AuthorTOI News DeskThe TOI News Desk comprises a dedicated and tireless team of journalists who operate around the clock to deliver the most current and comprehensive news and updates to the readers of The Times of India worldwide. With an unwavering commitment to excellence in journalism, our team is at the forefront of gathering, verifying, and presenting breaking news, in-depth analysis, and insightful reports on a wide range of topics. The TOI News Desk is your trusted source for staying informed and connected to the ever-evolving global landscape, ensuring that our readers are equipped with the latest developments that matter most.”Read MoreEnd of ArticleFollow Us On Social MediaVideosIndia Protests Attack On Vessel Carrying Indian Crew Amid Trump’s Defence Of US StrikesFirst Indigenous C-295 Aircraft Successfully Completes Maiden Flight At Tata-Airbus FacilityCyber Fraud Crackdown: Gujarat Police Expose 105 Mule Accounts Under Operation Mule Hunt 2.0Manipur Tensions Rise After Bodies Of Six Abducted Naga Hostages Recovered In KangpokpiTamil Nadu CM Vijay Holds Talks With Congress Top Brass In Delhi Amid New Political SpeculationPM Modi Marks Historic Tenure, Credits NDA’s 12-Year Journey For India’s TransformationMEA Condemns Oman Ship Attack As 21 Indians Rescued, Three Crew Members Still MissingAt NDA Conclave, PM Modi Contrasts Congress Era With ‘NDA’s Development Record’ | WatchYusuf Pathan, Shatrughan Sinha, Sayoni Ghosh Among 19 MPs In Rebel Camp | WatchFrom Himanta To Bhupender: Are BJP Leaders Accelerating The TMC Rebellion?123PhotostoriesTop 8 premium residential societies driving luxury living in Noida7 things you must do in your garden in order to attract garden birds9 food habits of soldiers during World War I5 medicinal herbs you can grow in balcony10 baby boy names that symbolise limitlessness5 new sneakers releasing this June that are worth the hypeExclusive – Rubina Dilaik recalls hiding her pregnancy during a Punjabi film shoot, talks about mom guilt and motherhood; says, ‘My nose would start bleeding on set due to the extreme heat’6 subtle habits that make people lose respect for you, as per psychologistWhich quality makes others jealous of you? find out based on your birth date7 meaningful ways to celebrate your child’s biggest moments123Hot PicksJIPMAT 2026 answer keyNitish Kumar SonMahender MakhijaniIND vs AFG Live ScoreRoger Federer Car CollectionCristiano RonaldoHector PennKerala Plus One ResultTNEA Random NumberTop TrendingHaryana Gym Owner MurderGuru Randhawa Gym FiringGold Rate TodayFIFA World Cup 2026Delhi Hotel FireChennai TNSTC BusMeerut Conversion CaseBareilly NewsFilmmaker Bharathiraja DeathKarnataka Murder

Vamsikrishna02 mins mins
MK Stalin meets P Benjamin (Image/PTI) NEW DELHI: Former AIADMK minister P Benjamin has joined the DMK along with his supporters, in a significant political shift that adds to the continuing exodus of leaders from the opposition party in Tamil Nadu.Benjamin joined the ruling DMK in the presence of party president and chief minister MK Stalin at the party headquarters Anna Arivalayam in Chennai on Wednesday.He was accompanied by several AIADMK office-bearers, including Tiruvallur Central Party District Women’s Wing secretary Yamini Ilayaraja, district students’ wing secretary Dinesh and other functionaries who also switched sides.Senior DMK leaders TR Baalu, A Raja and RS Bharathi were present at the event.Benjamin, a former deputy mayor of the Chennai Corporation, had served as a minister in the AIADMK governments led by J Jayalalithaa and later Edappadi K Palaniswami. His departure comes amid a series of defections from the party in recent months.The AIADMK leadership has been dealing with internal challenges, including reported dissent among some MLAs in recent political developments, further weakening the party’s organisational strength.Benjamin’s exit follows a wider pattern of defections, with several former AIADMK ministers, including MC Sampath, NR Sivapathi, Kadambur C Raju and Udumalai K Radhakrishnan, recently joining the ruling TVK. Last month, former AIADMK MLA VNP Venkatraman also joined the DMK in Chennai. Get the latest India news and live updates. Download the TOI App.About the AuthorTOI News DeskThe TOI News Desk comprises a dedicated and tireless team of journalists who operate around the clock to deliver the most current and comprehensive news and updates to the readers of The Times of India worldwide. With an unwavering commitment to excellence in journalism, our team is at the forefront of gathering, verifying, and presenting breaking news, in-depth analysis, and insightful reports on a wide range of topics. The TOI News Desk is your trusted source for staying informed and connected to the ever-evolving global landscape, ensuring that our readers are equipped with the latest developments that matter most.”Read MoreEnd of ArticleFollow Us On Social MediaVideosIndia Protests Attack On Vessel Carrying Indian Crew Amid Trump’s Defence Of US StrikesFirst Indigenous C-295 Aircraft Successfully Completes Maiden Flight At Tata-Airbus FacilityCyber Fraud Crackdown: Gujarat Police Expose 105 Mule Accounts Under Operation Mule Hunt 2.0Manipur Tensions Rise After Bodies Of Six Abducted Naga Hostages Recovered In KangpokpiTamil Nadu CM Vijay Holds Talks With Congress Top Brass In Delhi Amid New Political SpeculationPM Modi Marks Historic Tenure, Credits NDA’s 12-Year Journey For India’s TransformationMEA Condemns Oman Ship Attack As 21 Indians Rescued, Three Crew Members Still MissingAt NDA Conclave, PM Modi Contrasts Congress Era With ‘NDA’s Development Record’ | WatchYusuf Pathan, Shatrughan Sinha, Sayoni Ghosh Among 19 MPs In Rebel Camp | WatchFrom Himanta To Bhupender: Are BJP Leaders Accelerating The TMC Rebellion?123PhotostoriesTop 8 premium residential societies driving luxury living in Noida7 things you must do in your garden in order to attract garden birds9 food habits of soldiers during World War I5 medicinal herbs you can grow in balcony10 baby boy names that symbolise limitlessness5 new sneakers releasing this June that are worth the hypeExclusive – Rubina Dilaik recalls hiding her pregnancy during a Punjabi film shoot, talks about mom guilt and motherhood; says, ‘My nose would start bleeding on set due to the extreme heat’6 subtle habits that make people lose respect for you, as per psychologistWhich quality makes others jealous of you? find out based on your birth date7 meaningful ways to celebrate your child’s biggest moments123Hot PicksJIPMAT 2026 answer keyNitish Kumar SonMahender MakhijaniIND vs AFG Live ScoreRoger Federer Car CollectionCristiano RonaldoHector PennKerala Plus One ResultTNEA Random NumberTop TrendingHaryana Gym Owner MurderGuru Randhawa Gym FiringGold Rate TodayFIFA World Cup 2026Delhi Hotel FireChennai TNSTC BusMeerut Conversion CaseBareilly NewsFilmmaker Bharathiraja DeathKarnataka Murder


AIADMK setback continues: P Benjamin joins DMK along with his supporters in Chennai
MK Stalin meets P Benjamin (Image/PTI)

NEW DELHI: Former AIADMK minister P Benjamin has joined the DMK along with his supporters, in a significant political shift that adds to the continuing exodus of leaders from the opposition party in Tamil Nadu.Benjamin joined the ruling DMK in the presence of party president and chief minister MK Stalin at the party headquarters Anna Arivalayam in Chennai on Wednesday.He was accompanied by several AIADMK office-bearers, including Tiruvallur Central Party District Women’s Wing secretary Yamini Ilayaraja, district students’ wing secretary Dinesh and other functionaries who also switched sides.Senior DMK leaders TR Baalu, A Raja and RS Bharathi were present at the event.Benjamin, a former deputy mayor of the Chennai Corporation, had served as a minister in the AIADMK governments led by J Jayalalithaa and later Edappadi K Palaniswami. His departure comes amid a series of defections from the party in recent months.The AIADMK leadership has been dealing with internal challenges, including reported dissent among some MLAs in recent political developments, further weakening the party’s organisational strength.Benjamin’s exit follows a wider pattern of defections, with several former AIADMK ministers, including MC Sampath, NR Sivapathi, Kadambur C Raju and Udumalai K Radhakrishnan, recently joining the ruling TVK. Last month, former AIADMK MLA VNP Venkatraman also joined the DMK in Chennai.



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NEW DELHI: India has firmly opposed the attacks on merchant vessels and called for restraint, stressing the need to protect civilian lives, as several Indian nationals had either lost their lives or gone missing in attacks linked to the Middle East conflict.Speaking at the United Nations Security Council on Wednesday, India’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Ambassador P Harish Parvathaneni, “We expressed our deep concern at the conflict in Iran and the Gulf region that unfortunately began in the holy month of Ramadan and urged all sides to exercise restraint, avoid escalation and prioritise the safety of civilians.””Many Indian nationals have lost their lives or are missing as a result of attacks against countries of the region and against merchant vessels and sea lanes of communication,” he added.The remarks came hours after India lodged a strong protest with the US Embassy in New Delhi over an attack on the Palau-flagged tanker Settebello off the coast of Oman. The vessel had 24 Indian crew members on board.While 21 have been rescued, two Indian nationals have been confirmed dead and one remains missing. The three were initially reported missing following the attack.Parvathaneni noted that nearly 10 million Indian citizens live and work in the Gulf region, making their safety a top priority for New Delhi.”Our trade and energy supply chains are dependent on stability in the region and any major disruption has serious consequences for the Indian economy,” he said.”The intensification of the Iran conflict and its spread to other nations have evoked great anxiety.” He noted that the ongoing violence has had a direct impact on India because of its geographical proximity and strategic interests in the region.”The mounting destruction and deaths and cessation of normal life and economic activities have deeply impacted India, a proximate neighbour with critical stakes in the security and stability of the region,” he added.India also strongly reiterated its call for dialogue and diplomacy, avoiding impeding freedom of navigation and commerce, avoiding military targeting of commercial shipping, avoiding targeting of the civilian population and infrastructure, and seeking an early end to the conflict.The diplomatic intervention came after a US strike on the chemical and oil products tanker Settebello in the Gulf of Oman. Also read: US attack on ship near Hormuz: Two Indian sailors dead, chief engineer still missing after incident”We condemn the attack on the commercial vessel Settebello off the coast of Oman, earlier today. Of the 24 Indian crew onboard, 21 Indians have been rescued thus far and 03 Indians are reportedly missing. Our Embassy in Oman is closely monitoring the situation and proactively coordinating with the Omani authorities in the ongoing Search and Rescue operation,” the ministry of external affairs said in a statement after three were initially reported missing following the attack.The Indian Embassy in Muscat is coordinating with Omani authorities as search and rescue efforts continue. According to the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO), the tanker reported an engine-room fire around 20 nautical miles northeast of Oman’s Sohar port.Parvathaneni’s remarks at the UN came shortly after India summoned US Charge d’Affaires Jason Meeks and lodged a formal protest.The attack on Settebello came just two days after another Palau-flagged vessel carrying 24 Indian crew members was disabled by US forces while attempting to breach the American blockade on Iranian ports. All crew members from that vessel were later rescued with assistance from Omani authorities.Unlike the earlier vessel, Settebello was not listed under sanctions imposed by the US Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), a point reportedly highlighted by Indian officials during discussions with the American side.This comes as the US imposed a maritime blockade on April 13 in response to Iranian restrictions on shipping through the Strait of Hormuz. US Central Command (CENTCOM) said its forces had targeted vessels that failed to comply with instructions issued by American forces.This comes as the US imposed a maritime blockade on April 13 in response to Iranian restrictions on shipping through the Strait of Hormuz. US Central Command (CENTCOM) said its forces had targeted vessels that failed to comply with instructions issued by American forces.Also read: ‘Hole at bottom, vessel sinking’: Indian crew sends SOS seeking ‘immediate help’ after US missile hit shipGet the latest India news and live updates. Download the TOI App.About the AuthorTOI News DeskThe TOI News Desk comprises a dedicated and tireless team of journalists who operate around the clock to deliver the most current and comprehensive news and updates to the readers of The Times of India worldwide. With an unwavering commitment to excellence in journalism, our team is at the forefront of gathering, verifying, and presenting breaking news, in-depth analysis, and insightful reports on a wide range of topics. The TOI News Desk is your trusted source for staying informed and connected to the ever-evolving global landscape, ensuring that our readers are equipped with the latest developments that matter most.”Read MoreEnd of ArticleFollow Us On Social MediaVideosIndia Extends Tax Benefits For Ethanol-Blended Petrol Amid Energy Market UncertaintyIndia Protests Attack On Vessel Carrying Indian Crew Amid Trump’s Defence Of US StrikesFirst Indigenous C-295 Aircraft Successfully Completes Maiden Flight At Tata-Airbus FacilityCyber Fraud Crackdown: Gujarat Police Expose 105 Mule Accounts Under Operation Mule Hunt 2.0Manipur Tensions Rise After Bodies Of Six Abducted Naga Hostages Recovered In KangpokpiTamil Nadu CM Vijay Holds Talks With Congress Top Brass In Delhi Amid New Political SpeculationPM Modi Marks Historic Tenure, Credits NDA’s 12-Year Journey For India’s TransformationMEA Condemns Oman Ship Attack As 21 Indians Rescued, Three Crew Members Still MissingAt NDA Conclave, PM Modi Contrasts Congress Era With ‘NDA’s Development Record’ | WatchYusuf Pathan, Shatrughan Sinha, Sayoni Ghosh Among 19 MPs In Rebel Camp | Watch123PhotostoriesFrench love proverb of the day: “The pleasure of love lasts only a moment, the pain of love lasts…”Do you want to become rich? try these remedies based on your birthTop 8 premium residential societies driving luxury living in Noida7 things you must do in your garden in order to attract garden birds9 food habits of soldiers during World War I5 medicinal herbs you can grow in balcony10 baby boy names that symbolise limitlessness5 new sneakers releasing this June that are worth the hypeExclusive – Rubina Dilaik recalls hiding her pregnancy during a Punjabi film shoot, talks about mom guilt and motherhood; says, ‘My nose would start bleeding on set due to the extreme heat’6 subtle habits that make people lose respect for you, as per psychologist123Hot PicksOpendoor IndiaNitish Kumar SonForm 26ASIND vs AFG Live ScoreDelhi weatherGuru Randhawa gym firingTMC rebel MP listKerala Plus One ResultTS Inter Supply Result 2026Top TrendingHaryana Gym Owner MurderGuru Randhawa Gym FiringGold Rate TodayFIFA World Cup 2026Delhi Hotel FireMP Prakash Chik Baraik ResignationMeerut Conversion CaseCBSE Class 10 Second Board ResultBengaluru Child DeathKarnataka Murder

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File photo Aviation in India is that rare thing – a sureshot growth industry. But there’s a fascinating story within this story. The South — Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, and Kerala — dominates aviation. Slice and dice the data any which way, southern states together fly far above every other region. And much of this change has happened over the last 10 years. Plus, in some ways, the southern aviation market has started resembling mature markets in advanced countries.South Rules, Domestic Or InternationalTake recent data. Between April 2025 and March 2026, 41 out of every 100 international passengers crossing India’s borders did so through a southern airport. The northern region, including Delhi, accounted for 28. The West, including Mumbai, managed 25, per Airports Authority of India numbers.The domestic picture is just as striking. Southern airports carried one crore more passengers than the North, and 1.44 crore more than the West, despite the fact that Delhi and Mumbai, India’s two busiest airports, sit in the northern and western regions.Interestingly, a decade ago, the race was much tighter. The West led with about five crore annual domestic passengers, followed by the North at 4.8 crore, and the South at 4.6 crore. But by 2024-25, the South had crossed the 10-crore domestic passenger mark. The other regions are still waiting to get there.Source: Airports Authority of IndiaGraphic: Sanjeev KumarapuramBelow Vindhyas, it’s like the US or JapanThis is not just a story of bigger airports or fuller flights. It is the story of an aviation market that has matured differently.The govt’s UDAN scheme, whose first flight took off in April 2017, is perhaps the clearest map of where Indian aviation still needs help. Of the 923 routes awarded nationally, UP alone accounts for 96, while Uttarakhand has another 81. Together, these two states have been awarded more routes than all the southern states combined, according to data from Rajya Sabha replies.But awarding routes is one thing. Survival is another.In Uttar Pradesh, UDAN flights commenced on 56 routes, but 20 were shut within three years, the highest discontinuation for any state. Uttarakhand followed with 16 discontinued routes, and Assam with 12. The contrast with the South is telling. AAI and UDAN data suggest that southern India has a more mature aviation market, where even smaller airports generate durable, year-round demand.In that sense, parts of southern India are beginning to resemble aviation ecosystems seen in countries such as US, Japan, Canada, Australia and Norway.In US, a traveller from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, can board a regional aircraft to Chicago, connect to a domestic jet service to New York, and then continue on a long-haul international flight to Delhi. In Japan, turboprops link remote islands and regional centres, such as Tokunoshima, to Kagoshima, feeding passengers into larger national hubs. The defining feature of such systems is a seamless progression: small regional aircraft, then domestic jet services, then international long-haul flights.This structure is now increasingly visible in the South.Take Rajahmundry, the textile hub often called the “Bombay of the South”. IndiGo and Fly91 together operate 10 daily departures from Hyderabad to the city. It is an hour-long hop on an ATR aircraft, compared with about seven hours by road. The first ATR leaves Hyderabad for Rajahmundry at 6. 50am; the last departs at 8pm. Rajahmundry is also connected by non-stop flights to Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Chennai.The comparison with Cedar Rapids is instructive. This city in Iowa, the world’s largest cornprocessing centre, is connected to Chicago with eight daily non-stop flights, though by faster regional jets. Like in the case of Cedar Rapids, Rajahmundry’s network shows how deeply air connectivity has begun to penetrate.Compare this with airports serving similarly sized cities in other parts of India, and the South’s distinct aviation model becomes apparent. The region has what analysts might call a full aviation stack: regional turboprops connecting smaller cities, narrow-body jets on trunk routes between state capitals and major metros, and a strong international layer above them. Each tier feeds the next.This is a structure that the north and west, for all their traffic volumes, have not yet replicated at scale.Consider IndiGo, India’s largest airline. According to an aviation official, the airline deploys about 60% of its regional ATR turboprop fleet across just three stations: Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Chennai.What makes South the leaderAviation experts TOI spoke to identified the South’s economic dynamism as the key reason.“Demand in the South is not reliant on one or two large metros, but distributed across a network of economically active cities… these have strong interlinkages across technology, manufacturing, healthcare, education and exports,” said Ashish Chhawchharia, partner, Grant Thornton Bharat. “This creates a more resilient and diversified traffic base, compared to regions where demand is concentrated around a few hubs or seasonal travel.”Tamil Nadu has Chennai, Coimbatore, Madurai, Tiruchirappalli, Salem and Thoothukudi, each sustaining regular scheduled flight services independently. Karnataka has Bengaluru, Mysuru, Hubballi and Belagavi. Andhra Pradesh has Vijayawada, Tirupati, Rajahmundry, Kadapa and Kurnool.“These are not subsidised experiments in regional connectivity. They are commercial decisions, made because the demand is there, day after day, flight after flight,” said the aviation official quoted earlier.Suprio Banerjee, vice-president and co-group head, Corporate Ratings, ICRA, said the south’s passenger strength is rooted in its economic structure, airport infrastructure network, and the presence of key cities, which generate frequent business travel to both domestic and international destinations.The dominance of IT services, with Bengaluru and Hyderabad emerging as major hubs for client-facing technology roles, along with the region’s start-up and venture capital ecosystem, has helped push both international traffic, and short-haul domestic travel between Southern metros, he said.Chhawchharia added that a key differentiator for the South is its early “industrialisation” in sectors that drive high-frequency air travel, particularly IT services, global capability centres, electronics, pharmaceuticals, and advanced manufacturing. These industries attract talent from across the country, creating sustained air traffic into cities such as Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Chennai.“These cities function as national business gateways with deep domestic and international connectivity needs. At the same time, Tier-2 markets are more integrated into the formal economy, sustaining demand beyond metro-to-metro routes,” he said.As GCCs multiply across the region and data centre investments pour in, that demand base keeps compounding. “Economically anchored routes tend to deliver more stable, recurring passenger flows over time,” said Chhawchharia.UDAN data reinforces that point. The North has a larger operational UDAN network, with 215 routes, compared with 141 in the South. But it has also seen far higher route attrition. Discontinued routes in the North are equivalent to 26% of its operationalised network. In the South, the figure is just 12%. Kerala leads the UDAN success list, with 12 routes operationalised and none discontinued.Source: Rajya SabhaThe Kerala (aviation) storyKerala’s contribution to the South’s aviation dominance, however, comes from a very different engine: international traffic.At Kozhikode, 76% of all passengers are international travellers. At Thiruvananthapuram, international passengers outnumber domestic ones, 53% to 47%. At most Indian airports, including Delhi and Mumbai, the typical split is around 30% international and 70% domestic. Kerala’s overseas traffic, driven largely by its Gulf links and migration economy, is a major reason why Southern states have accounted for around 40% of India’s international traffic for at least a decade.Airports matter, tooInfrastructure has also played a decisive role in the South’s aviation success story.Delhi and Mumbai have been operating beyond comfortable capacity for decades, their terminals and runways stretched by demand that long outpaced supply. Both cities have only recently begun to address the problem, with Navi Mumbai airport commissioned in December 2025 and Noida-Jewar airport set to commence operations this month, corrections that were decades overdue.The South, by contrast, entered the modern airport era with newer runways and cleaner blueprints. Bengaluru’s Kempegowda International Airport and Hyderabad’s Rajiv Gandhi International Airport are both greenfield facilities that opened in 2008. They were purpose-built, modern airports designed for growth, unlike Delhi, Mumbai, and Kolkata, whose infrastructure carries the weight of seven or eight decades of incremental expansion.Today, four of India’s ten busiest airports by passenger traffic are in the South: Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai, and Kochi. No other region matches that concentration. Bengaluru is already planning a massive second airport. Visakhapatnam is preparing for its next chapter too, with Bhogapuram International Airport expected to open soon. It will serve a city rapidly emerging as a hub for artificial intelligence, data centres, and global capability centres, attracting investments from Google, Reliance, TCS, Infosys, and Capgemini, among others.Figures rounded offInverting Aviation HistoryIndian aviation, of course, began its commercial journey in the West. In 1932, JRD Tata flew his historic airmail service from Karachi to Mumbai, via Ahmedabad. For decades thereafter, Mumbai had India’s busiest airport, and the Western corridor remained the gravitational centre of Indian flying: the busiest routes, the thickest traffic, the headquarters of the national carrier.But Mumbai’s congested airport could not keep pace with demand. Around the turn of the century, Delhi overtook it to become the country’s busiest airport.Now, that geography of dominance has been redrawn again.The signs were visible as early as 2007-08 in AAI’s own segment revenue data. That year, the South generated revenue of Rs 1,538 crore, the highest of any region in the country, ahead of the West’s Rs 1,150 crore, and the North’s Rs 995 crore. In the years since, the South has only strengthened its lead.Indian aviation once moved along a West-to-North axis, from Mumbai’s old dominance to Delhi’s rise. The next chapter is being written further south, across a lattice of business cities, temple towns, Gulf gateways, textile hubs, technology centres, and new airports.The south is not merely adding passengers. It is building a whole new aviation system.Get the latest India news and live updates. Download the TOI App.End of ArticleFollow Us On Social MediaVideosIndia Extends Tax Benefits For Ethanol-Blended Petrol Amid Energy Market UncertaintyIndia Protests Attack On Vessel Carrying Indian Crew Amid Trump’s Defence Of US StrikesFirst Indigenous C-295 Aircraft Successfully Completes Maiden Flight At Tata-Airbus FacilityCyber Fraud Crackdown: Gujarat Police Expose 105 Mule Accounts Under Operation Mule Hunt 2.0Manipur Tensions Rise After Bodies Of Six Abducted Naga Hostages Recovered In KangpokpiTamil Nadu CM Vijay Holds Talks With Congress Top Brass In Delhi Amid New Political SpeculationPM Modi Marks Historic Tenure, Credits NDA’s 12-Year Journey For India’s TransformationMEA Condemns Oman Ship Attack As 21 Indians Rescued, Three Crew Members Still MissingAt NDA Conclave, PM Modi Contrasts Congress Era With ‘NDA’s Development Record’ | WatchYusuf Pathan, Shatrughan Sinha, Sayoni Ghosh Among 19 MPs In Rebel Camp | Watch123PhotostoriesDo you want to become rich? try these remedies based on your birthTop 8 premium residential societies driving luxury living in Noida7 things you must do in your garden in order to attract garden birds9 food habits of soldiers during World War I5 medicinal herbs you can grow in balcony10 baby boy names that symbolise limitlessness5 new sneakers releasing this June that are worth the hypeExclusive – Rubina Dilaik recalls hiding her pregnancy during a Punjabi film shoot, talks about mom guilt and motherhood; says, ‘My nose would start bleeding on set due to the extreme heat’6 subtle habits that make people lose respect for you, as per psychologistWhich quality makes others jealous of you? find out based on your birth date123Hot PicksJIPMAT 2026 answer keyNitish Kumar SonMahender MakhijaniIND vs AFG Live ScoreRoger Federer Car CollectionCristiano RonaldoHector PennKerala Plus One ResultTNEA Random NumberTop TrendingHaryana Gym Owner MurderGuru Randhawa Gym FiringGold Rate TodayFIFA World Cup 2026Delhi Hotel FireChennai TNSTC BusMeerut Conversion CaseBareilly NewsFilmmaker Bharathiraja DeathKarnataka Murder

File photo Aviation in India is that rare thing – a sureshot growth industry. But there’s a fascinating story within this story. The South — Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, and Kerala — dominates aviation. Slice and dice the data any which way, southern states together fly far above every other region. And much of this change has happened over the last 10 years. Plus, in some ways, the southern aviation market has started resembling mature markets in advanced countries.South Rules, Domestic Or InternationalTake recent data. Between April 2025 and March 2026, 41 out of every 100 international passengers crossing India’s borders did so through a southern airport. The northern region, including Delhi, accounted for 28. The West, including Mumbai, managed 25, per Airports Authority of India numbers.The domestic picture is just as striking. Southern airports carried one crore more passengers than the North, and 1.44 crore more than the West, despite the fact that Delhi and Mumbai, India’s two busiest airports, sit in the northern and western regions.Interestingly, a decade ago, the race was much tighter. The West led with about five crore annual domestic passengers, followed by the North at 4.8 crore, and the South at 4.6 crore. But by 2024-25, the South had crossed the 10-crore domestic passenger mark. The other regions are still waiting to get there.Source: Airports Authority of IndiaGraphic: Sanjeev KumarapuramBelow Vindhyas, it’s like the US or JapanThis is not just a story of bigger airports or fuller flights. It is the story of an aviation market that has matured differently.The govt’s UDAN scheme, whose first flight took off in April 2017, is perhaps the clearest map of where Indian aviation still needs help. Of the 923 routes awarded nationally, UP alone accounts for 96, while Uttarakhand has another 81. Together, these two states have been awarded more routes than all the southern states combined, according to data from Rajya Sabha replies.But awarding routes is one thing. Survival is another.In Uttar Pradesh, UDAN flights commenced on 56 routes, but 20 were shut within three years, the highest discontinuation for any state. Uttarakhand followed with 16 discontinued routes, and Assam with 12. The contrast with the South is telling. AAI and UDAN data suggest that southern India has a more mature aviation market, where even smaller airports generate durable, year-round demand.In that sense, parts of southern India are beginning to resemble aviation ecosystems seen in countries such as US, Japan, Canada, Australia and Norway.In US, a traveller from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, can board a regional aircraft to Chicago, connect to a domestic jet service to New York, and then continue on a long-haul international flight to Delhi. In Japan, turboprops link remote islands and regional centres, such as Tokunoshima, to Kagoshima, feeding passengers into larger national hubs. The defining feature of such systems is a seamless progression: small regional aircraft, then domestic jet services, then international long-haul flights.This structure is now increasingly visible in the South.Take Rajahmundry, the textile hub often called the “Bombay of the South”. IndiGo and Fly91 together operate 10 daily departures from Hyderabad to the city. It is an hour-long hop on an ATR aircraft, compared with about seven hours by road. The first ATR leaves Hyderabad for Rajahmundry at 6. 50am; the last departs at 8pm. Rajahmundry is also connected by non-stop flights to Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Chennai.The comparison with Cedar Rapids is instructive. This city in Iowa, the world’s largest cornprocessing centre, is connected to Chicago with eight daily non-stop flights, though by faster regional jets. Like in the case of Cedar Rapids, Rajahmundry’s network shows how deeply air connectivity has begun to penetrate.Compare this with airports serving similarly sized cities in other parts of India, and the South’s distinct aviation model becomes apparent. The region has what analysts might call a full aviation stack: regional turboprops connecting smaller cities, narrow-body jets on trunk routes between state capitals and major metros, and a strong international layer above them. Each tier feeds the next.This is a structure that the north and west, for all their traffic volumes, have not yet replicated at scale.Consider IndiGo, India’s largest airline. According to an aviation official, the airline deploys about 60% of its regional ATR turboprop fleet across just three stations: Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Chennai.What makes South the leaderAviation experts TOI spoke to identified the South’s economic dynamism as the key reason.“Demand in the South is not reliant on one or two large metros, but distributed across a network of economically active cities… these have strong interlinkages across technology, manufacturing, healthcare, education and exports,” said Ashish Chhawchharia, partner, Grant Thornton Bharat. “This creates a more resilient and diversified traffic base, compared to regions where demand is concentrated around a few hubs or seasonal travel.”Tamil Nadu has Chennai, Coimbatore, Madurai, Tiruchirappalli, Salem and Thoothukudi, each sustaining regular scheduled flight services independently. Karnataka has Bengaluru, Mysuru, Hubballi and Belagavi. Andhra Pradesh has Vijayawada, Tirupati, Rajahmundry, Kadapa and Kurnool.“These are not subsidised experiments in regional connectivity. They are commercial decisions, made because the demand is there, day after day, flight after flight,” said the aviation official quoted earlier.Suprio Banerjee, vice-president and co-group head, Corporate Ratings, ICRA, said the south’s passenger strength is rooted in its economic structure, airport infrastructure network, and the presence of key cities, which generate frequent business travel to both domestic and international destinations.The dominance of IT services, with Bengaluru and Hyderabad emerging as major hubs for client-facing technology roles, along with the region’s start-up and venture capital ecosystem, has helped push both international traffic, and short-haul domestic travel between Southern metros, he said.Chhawchharia added that a key differentiator for the South is its early “industrialisation” in sectors that drive high-frequency air travel, particularly IT services, global capability centres, electronics, pharmaceuticals, and advanced manufacturing. These industries attract talent from across the country, creating sustained air traffic into cities such as Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Chennai.“These cities function as national business gateways with deep domestic and international connectivity needs. At the same time, Tier-2 markets are more integrated into the formal economy, sustaining demand beyond metro-to-metro routes,” he said.As GCCs multiply across the region and data centre investments pour in, that demand base keeps compounding. “Economically anchored routes tend to deliver more stable, recurring passenger flows over time,” said Chhawchharia.UDAN data reinforces that point. The North has a larger operational UDAN network, with 215 routes, compared with 141 in the South. But it has also seen far higher route attrition. Discontinued routes in the North are equivalent to 26% of its operationalised network. In the South, the figure is just 12%. Kerala leads the UDAN success list, with 12 routes operationalised and none discontinued.Source: Rajya SabhaThe Kerala (aviation) storyKerala’s contribution to the South’s aviation dominance, however, comes from a very different engine: international traffic.At Kozhikode, 76% of all passengers are international travellers. At Thiruvananthapuram, international passengers outnumber domestic ones, 53% to 47%. At most Indian airports, including Delhi and Mumbai, the typical split is around 30% international and 70% domestic. Kerala’s overseas traffic, driven largely by its Gulf links and migration economy, is a major reason why Southern states have accounted for around 40% of India’s international traffic for at least a decade.Airports matter, tooInfrastructure has also played a decisive role in the South’s aviation success story.Delhi and Mumbai have been operating beyond comfortable capacity for decades, their terminals and runways stretched by demand that long outpaced supply. Both cities have only recently begun to address the problem, with Navi Mumbai airport commissioned in December 2025 and Noida-Jewar airport set to commence operations this month, corrections that were decades overdue.The South, by contrast, entered the modern airport era with newer runways and cleaner blueprints. Bengaluru’s Kempegowda International Airport and Hyderabad’s Rajiv Gandhi International Airport are both greenfield facilities that opened in 2008. They were purpose-built, modern airports designed for growth, unlike Delhi, Mumbai, and Kolkata, whose infrastructure carries the weight of seven or eight decades of incremental expansion.Today, four of India’s ten busiest airports by passenger traffic are in the South: Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai, and Kochi. No other region matches that concentration. Bengaluru is already planning a massive second airport. Visakhapatnam is preparing for its next chapter too, with Bhogapuram International Airport expected to open soon. It will serve a city rapidly emerging as a hub for artificial intelligence, data centres, and global capability centres, attracting investments from Google, Reliance, TCS, Infosys, and Capgemini, among others.Figures rounded offInverting Aviation HistoryIndian aviation, of course, began its commercial journey in the West. In 1932, JRD Tata flew his historic airmail service from Karachi to Mumbai, via Ahmedabad. For decades thereafter, Mumbai had India’s busiest airport, and the Western corridor remained the gravitational centre of Indian flying: the busiest routes, the thickest traffic, the headquarters of the national carrier.But Mumbai’s congested airport could not keep pace with demand. Around the turn of the century, Delhi overtook it to become the country’s busiest airport.Now, that geography of dominance has been redrawn again.The signs were visible as early as 2007-08 in AAI’s own segment revenue data. That year, the South generated revenue of Rs 1,538 crore, the highest of any region in the country, ahead of the West’s Rs 1,150 crore, and the North’s Rs 995 crore. In the years since, the South has only strengthened its lead.Indian aviation once moved along a West-to-North axis, from Mumbai’s old dominance to Delhi’s rise. The next chapter is being written further south, across a lattice of business cities, temple towns, Gulf gateways, textile hubs, technology centres, and new airports.The south is not merely adding passengers. It is building a whole new aviation system.Get the latest India news and live updates. 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