Hong Kong: China and India's air infrastructure is creaking under the soaring demand for air travel and huge investment is needed to satisfy the boom, officials said Tuesday.
Both countries are enjoying an unprecedented aviation boom, with China's air traffic expected to double every five years and India seeing an increase of 29 percent in the number of flights taken from its airports this year.
But the growth is exposing a lack of airports and inadequate facilities, forcing them to invest rapidly to prevent stunting their economic booms, officials from both countries told the Asian Aerospace International Expo and Congress here.
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Photo: Javed Parvesh, Senior Reporter,
Malayala Manorama, Kochi, India
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India is struggling to provide the necessary infrastructure to match its booming demand for air travel, and needs to spend 9.6 billion dollars over the next five years improving airports across the country, said K. Ramalingam, regional executive director for the Civil Airports Authority of India.
Ramalingam said he expected 100 million people to travel by plane this year in India, compared to just 43 million in 2003-2004. As a result, the government was working on expanding existing airports, but also developing an improved network of non-urban airports.
04/09/07 AFP To Read the News in full at Source, Click the Headline
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