India's Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel has told a parliamentary consultative committee that 2,000 new flights are be added in the summer schedule starting March end to keep pace with the huge growth in passenger and air cargo traffic, according to a ZEE TV News report.

The meeting also gave special emphasis on the expansion of air connectivity in the southern part of the country, which accounted for a third of national volume.

Total passenger traffic in 2005-06 increased by 24 per cent to 73.35 million, of which southern India accounted for 22.24 million. Aircraft movements went up by 17 per cent and air cargo by 10 per cent.

Elaborating on the increase in the number of weekly departures from March, Mr Patel said these would go up in southern region from 2,938 a week to 3,734, in the western region from 2,534 to 3,219, in the north from 2,132 to 2,433 and the east from 1,034 to 1,129.