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India will drive global aviation growth: IATA chief

     New Delhi: The Indian aviation industry and its growth would be an integral driver of future global aviation outlook, claimed Giovani Bisignani, Director General of the IATA (International Air Transport Association) at an interactive session on "Aviation in India: Great Opportunities and Great Challenges", organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), here today. Bisignani stated that India had come up quite well in the field of civil aviation, making the expansion of air transport in the country amongst the fastest in the world. However, he added, that much remained to be done. "If India has to compete with the challenge posed by China, it will have to improve its infrastructure at the airports in the country, most of which are not up to international standards". Globally, airlines are a 400 billion dollar industry, which generates 1.3 trillion dollars in economic output. Stating that the potential of air transport was too great to be taken lightly, the Director General of IATA asserted that India must undertake five immediate tasks to take full advantage of this potential.

     Listing the priorities, he said that the focus should be on Enhanced safety, cost-effective improvement of infrastructure, reasonable taxation, allowing the airline operators to function as real business and effective use of technology to simplify the procedures. Bisignani said that India's air transport infrastructure was out of date and steps were needed to improve the same. Not getting into the debate on airport privatization, he said that IATA was not interested as to who owned the airports, but it was concerned that they must be safe, cost-efficient and provide adequate capacity for further growth. Another urgent concern of the IATA was the increasing taxation on aviation, not only in India but all over the globe. He said that he was happy that the Indian Government had abolished the fuel uplift levy in 2002, but at the same time disappointed that the US Dollar 36 million collected by the levy had not been returned to the airlines. "Liberalisation is not something to be feared but to be anticipated" he stated. China has a clear plan to liberalise and SAARC countries were moving in the same direction. Bisignani stated that the IATA was not setting targets only for governments but it was setting deadlines for itself too. "We are committed to switch over completely to e-ticketing by December 2007 because we need the three billion dollars that will be saved, once e-ticketing is introduced. On this target date for e-ticketing, India is way behind at five percent, as against a 40 percent average globally," Bisignani said. "Similarly e-freight too is a key initiative being pursued by IATA, with as many as 38 documents being required currently for shipments by air", he added. "Each year the amount of paper wasted on freight documentation could be accommodated in 39 Boeing 747-400s or 81 A 300s", he said, giving the grim picture of the waste this entails.

     Earlier, in his welcome address, V Thulasidas, Chairman of the CII National Committee on Civil Aviation and Chairman and Managing Director, Air India stated that the airline industry had seen a strong growth momentum in the last couple of years in India. "New airlines, acquisition of new aircraft fleet by existing players, private airlines joining India's national carriers on international routes, launch of low cost variants in the Indian skies and strong global interest in the Indian aviation sector, be it airlines or airport management had instilled this sense of confidence over the Indian skies" he stated. Thulasidas said that CII believed that the momentum that the aviation industry was witnessing in India would also reflect in business tourism and overall economic growth in the country. At the same time he also pointed out the challenges that India faced, particularly the infrastructure challenge. Airline- industry maturity and Airport infrastructure had failed to keep pace with each other in India, he said. There are also challenges on account of Air Traffic inefficiencies, with enormous wastage of fuel taking place at India's airports on account of these inefficiencies. An enormous wastage of fuel at India's airports and in the skies currently, comes at a time when airlines are already bearing the brunt of historical highs in fuel costs globally. Stating that the Indian aviation industry was not functioning in isolation he pointed that the challenges before the Indian aviation industry was a reflection of the challenges that aviation faced globally. Giving his concluding remarks, Dr.Vijay Mallaya, Member of the CII National Committee on Civil Aviation and Chairman and MD of the Kingfisher Airlines thanked Bisignani for the strong agenda that IATA had taken up, on behalf of the Aviation Industry, globally.
-Oct 18,  2005

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