Projecting a rapid growth for India’s aviation sector, Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh has sought to make a strong push to woo American investments by taking advantage of New Delhi’s moves to steadily open up the sector.
Participating in the first-ever US-India Aviation Summit here, Singh said civil aviation in India has been scripting a major success story over the past decade in the wake of a series of liberalization measures to attract foreign direct investment.
“One of the most important initiatives in this direction is to allow 49% Foreign Direct Investment 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 going to start their operations in near future. This is in addition to the FDI of US$ 350 million by Etihad in to Jet Airways,” he said.
India has also adopted liberal policies regarding bilateral air services agreement, partnerships and code-sharing. To facilitate the growth of MRO Business and to make it competitive, the Government of India have also announced several concessions.
Referring to the GPS Aided Navigation System ‘GAGAN’ developed by Airports Authority of India with the support of Indian Space Research Organisation, he told the summit that this major initiative would bring India to the threshold of redefining navigation in the region from land based to satellite based system.
“India is the fourth country in the world after USA, Japan and Europe to have such navigation system which will facilitate aircraft landing in tough weather and terrain. This will also help in reducing flying time and fuel consumption by providing straight navigation and thus reducing carbon emission,” he told the conference.
He told the US investment community that India has already emerged as the 9th largest aviation market handling 121 million domestic and 41 million international passengers with more than 85 international airlines operating to India and 5 Indian carriers connecting over 40 countries.
The Indian airport system, he said, is poised to handle 336 million domestic and 85 million international passengers by 2020, making India the third largest aviation market. He spoke of estimates that the commercial fleet size of 400 aircraft now could reach 1,000, worth US$ 45 billion by 2020.