New Delhi, Jan. 24 -- Best of the Week is a weekly newsletter by Siddharth Sharma/Shravani Sinha. Subscribe to Mint's newsletters to get them directly in your inbox.

India loves a big infrastructure headline. One new airport every 45-50 days certainly sounds like a country racing toward the future. And it's true, over the last 11 years, India has added 89 airports. But when you pause and look beyond the announcement stage, a more nuanced question comes into focus; are all these airports actually taking off?

The data suggests it's a mixed flight. Nearly 60% of airports built, upgraded or connected since 2017 saw fewer than 10,000 domestic passengers a month in 2025. Many had fewer than five flights a day, quiet terminals that feel more a...