'India to become 3rd largest aviation mkt by 2020'

Union Minister for Civil Aviation Mr. Ajit Singh has said that the country will become world's third largest aviation market by 2020, with enhanced Airport system that could handle 336 million domestic and 41 million international passengers.

India currently stands at 9thposition. He said this during the inauguration of five-day  India Aviation 2014 titled "Enhancing Air connectivity" here at the Begumpet airport on Wednesday.

"Commercial fleet size is also expected to grow from 400 aircraft today to 1,000. At the same time the government has envisaged an investment of $ 12.1 billion in the airport sector during 12th Five-Year Plan period, of which 12.1 billion will come from private sector," he added.

This would help in modernization of existing airports and development of low cost airports.CAA Bill On Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) Bill, secretary, ministry of civil aviation Ashok Lavasa told reporters, “Even though the  Union Cabinet has cleared the revised Civil Aviation Authority Bill incorporating the changes recommended by the standing committee on transport, tourism and culture, the new government will have to take call on it.” 

“In this decade overall traffic is expected to grow at 10.1 % and domestic traffic is expected to grow at 11.4% ad international at 9.5%,” he said. In addition six airports will be developed under PPP mode," he added.

On the issue of downgrading of Indian aviation safety rank by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), Lavasa said that only two out of 7 observation are still being addressed for which training will be completed by the month end.  

He said that recruitment of 75 Flight Operations Inspector (FOI) is going on.

On Dreamliners The CMD of national carrier Air India, Rohit Nandan ruled out grounding of Boeing built Dream liners. “This is not unusual in a new fleet. There are no safety issues but only small software and technical issues,” he said.

He added that the functioning and performance of Dreamliners was being jointly monitored by a committee and Boeing and the final report would be placed after 18 months of their use.