Govt keen to increase air traffic: Ajit Singh

Hyderabad, March 12 (INN): The Central Government is planning to take steps to increase the Air traffic density in India by promoting regional and remote-area connectivity.

Speaking after inaugurating the India Aviation 2014 at Begumpet Airport here on Wednesday, Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh said that Air Traffic density in India is very low at 72 as compared to China (282), which is 4 times higher; Brazil (231), which is 3 times higher; Malaysia (1225) is 17 times higher, USA (2896) is 40 times higher and Sri Lanka (530), which is 7 times higher.

"This indicates the untapped market potential given the projected burgeoning young population and rising disposable income levels in future," he said.

Ajit Singh also informed that India is currently the 9th largest aviation market handling 121 million domestic and 41 million international passengers with more than 85 international airlines operating to India and five Indian carriers connecting over 40 countries.

The Indian airport system is poised to handle 336 million domestic and 85 million international passengers by 2020, making India the third largest aviation market. Moreover, commercial fleet size is expected to grow from 400 today to 1000 aircraft by 2020, he said.

"Indian Government has envisaged an investment of US $ 1.2 billion in airports sector during 12th plan period, of which US $ 9.3 billion is expected to come from the private sector for construction of new airports, expansion and modernization of existing airports and development of low cost airports," Ajit Singh said.

Giving credit for growth in the aviation sector to the Central Government, he said the liberalization policy was helpful in drawing foreign direct investment and rope in private investments.

"The biggest game changer in this direction has been to allow 49% FDI by foreign airlines in Indian carriers. The results of this policy are already visible as two new Scheduled airlines - AIR Asia and TATA SIA are in the process of starting their operations in near future. This is in addition to the FDI of US $ 350 million by Eithad into Jet Airways," he said.

Speaking on the occasion, Governor ESL Narasimhan said that the aviation industry has been passing through a turbulent phase across the globe for a while with multiple headwinds but the opportunities that India offers for growth are substantial.

"My conservative estimate is that about 80 to 90 billion US dollars market awaits you in India in areas that range from airport infrastructure, navigation services, passenger and cargo traffic, to aircraft operations and maintenance," he said.

The Governor said that Andhra Pradesh has been part and parcel of India aviation's growth story in terms of infrastructure, modernization and capacity augmentation, particularly at the non-metro level in a significant way.

Civil Aviation Secretary Ashok Lavasa, in his speech, said that India has made tremendous strides in aviation as passenger and cargo throughput registered an impressive compounded annual growth rate of 13% and 10% respectively during the period of 2003-2013.

"The passenger handling capacity of airports in India has risen from 72 million to 233 million in the last five years," he said.

Ashok Lavasa said the overall air traffic is expected to grow at an annual average growth rate of 10.1 per cent in this decade. Domestic traffic is expected to grow at 11.4 per cent and international traffic is expected to grow at 9.5 per cent for the next 10 years.

"In addition to the Greenfield airports at Navi Mumbai, Goa, Kannur and Kushinagar, the Airports Authority of India has identified six airports for private management under the PPP route," he said.

Ambassador of France Francois Richier, US Trade and Development Agency Director Leocadia I Zak, FICCI President Sidharth Birla and senior officials of Central and State Governments and aviation secretary were also present.