NEW DELHI (Reuters) — India outlined plans on Monday to invest billions of dollars in airports, aircraft and recruitment as the world’s fastest growing economy seeks to meet booming air travel demand.
Growth will include new airports, more regulators and air traffic controllers, and new flying schools, Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia told an industry audience.
“We need to put in place the civil aviation infrastructure and capabilities that by 2047 would be able to support a $20 trillion economy within India,” Scindia told the CAPA India Aviation Summit in New Delhi.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government said this year that the South Asian nation would spend 980 billion rupees ($11.88 billion) by 2025 to boost regional connectivity by constructing airports and modernizing existing ones.
Weak infrastructure is seen as hindering India’s aviation growth, especially as it looks to connect the country’s hinterlands to bigger cities in a bid to get more people to fly.
Scindia said passenger capacity at the country’s six major airports is expected to grow to 420 million in four years from 192 million today, and the Indian carriers’ fleet will grow to 2,000 aircraft in five years from 700.
Source: Reuters
