‘India to be among top 5 aviation nations in 10 years’

Mumbai: Highlighting the huge potential for growth of civil aviation in India, the President, Ms Pratibha Patil, urged the world aviation industry to partner with India for the expansion of the industry.
“Recent estimates suggest that domestic air traffic will touch 160 to 180 million passengers per annum, in the next 10 years and international traffic will exceed 80 million passengers per annum. India is poised to be among top five aviation nations in the world in 10 years. At present, India is the ninth largest civil aviation market,” she said inaugurating the fourth International Civil Aviation Negotiation (ICAN) conference in Mumbai.
“Flying is no longer the prerogative of a few privileged, but an option for an increasingly broader section of society,” observed Ms Patil.
She said deregulation of the domestic sector and liberalisation of bilateral traffic rights in the past decade has brought choices of carriers, choices of timings and fares. There is a sea-change from 500 departures per week in the country in 1994 before deregulation, to nearly 15,000 departures daily - a 30 times jump.
Today 87 foreign airlines fly to and from India and 5 Indian carriers fly to and from 40 countries. In the last decade, domestic air traffic has quadrupled from 13 million to 52 million and international traffic more than tripled to 38 million. A similar trend is observed in the cargo sector, she added. The rapidly expanding aviation sector handles 2.5 billion passengers across the world in a year; moves 45 million tonnes of cargo through 920 airlines, using 4,200 airports and deploying 27,000 aircraft.
17/10/11 Nivedita Ganguly/Business Line

To Read the News in full at Source, Click the Headline

Categories: Foreign Oct 2011, Indian Aviation- In General Oct 2011