Union Minister for Civil Aviation Ajit Singh said on March 17 that airline industry is witnessing a revival. Addressing the 11th Routes Asia Conference in Mumbai, Singh said various policy measures taken by the government have begun to yield results and hoped that the general aviation business will emerge as a key driver of regional connectivity and economic development.
He cited the Tata-Air Asia proposal and the interest evinced by Etihad in Jet Airways as examples of growing business confidence in the Indian civil aviation sector.
Ajit Singh termed 49 per cent FDI in aviation as an important policy decision which will transform the civil aviation scenario. He said that in order to give a boost to international air travel, the Government has liberalised grant of traffic rights to Indian carriers.
The Minister added that the new traffic rights have opened up several new international sectors and increased the traffic entitlements of our carriers by approximately 60 per cent.
The Minister said that the government envisages investment of $12.1 billion during the 12th plan period, of which $9.3 billion is expected to come from the private sector. He said, besides the four PPP airports at Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Hyderabad, the Airports Authority of India has modernised Kolkata and Chennai airports and is developing 35 other non-metro airports.
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