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Nov 2006

Praful Patel for new investment policy for air cargo sector

     New Delhi: Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel has said that India needs a new policy to attract more investment in the air cargo sector. "It cannot be addressed only by the present policies. We have no formal decision as yet but the government will be looking in this direction, and we will try to find ways to have more participation so that this sector of aviation which has not seen that kind of growth," Patel said. Freight aviation was less developed compared to the passenger sector, he added. Speaking in terms of investment needed to keep pace with the industry's expansion, Patel said, "There is no formal policy in place as yet but the government would look at it except passenger scheduled operation, the non-scheduled operations, the cargo sector, helicopter operations, c-planes. All these components of the aviation to be looked holistically where we can attract more investment and therefore the growth of this part of aviation can be much more than what it is today."

     India's rapidly expanding air travel industry needs 50 billion dollars in investment in planes and infrastructure over the next decade to cope with rising demand. The industry, which has seen hectic plane buying and airline launches in the past 18 months, is expected to expand by 25-30 percent by March 2006, and by 25 percent a year over the next five years.

     India and the EU signed a "Joint Declaration" on Wednesday, laying the foundation for closer cooperation in civil aviation. They agreed to restore legal certainty to all the bilateral air services agreements between India and EU Member States. The two sides have also agreed to prepare a joint action plan that will set out the key priorities for strengthening future technical and technological cooperation. In recent years, the Indian air traffic market has been among the fastest growing in the world. In 2005, domestic air passenger traffic in India increased by 22 percent while international passenger traffic grew by 15 percent. Since 1990, the number of seats available on scheduled non-stop flights between the EU and India has increased from 2.6 to 5.5 million in 2005. Capacity on EU-India routes is expected to grow even faster in the coming few years. With such a rapid development in air traffic, important new challenges and opportunities are emerging. India is one of the world's fastest growing aviation markets. During the first ten months of 2006, domestic air passenger traffic in India increased by 50 percent.

     Praful Patel and European Commission Vice President Jacques Barrot inaugurated the two-day Indo-EU Aviation Summit here yesterday. The summit is being jointly organised by the Ministry of Civil Aviation and the Directorate General for Energy and Transport of the European Commission and envisages providing an important platform for enhancing co-operation between the EU and India in aviation sector. The summit is intended to bring together top-level policy makers and industry executives from all sectors involved in the European and Indian aviation and aerospace industries. Issues like political and regulatory developments in aviation, developments in EU-India passenger and cargo markets, infrastructure needs and investment opportunities in the aviation sector, safety and security policies and co-operation, new challengers in commercial aircraft technology and air traffic management and technological and industrial co-operation will be addressed during the summit. Representatives of governments, airlines, airports and aerospace industries and service providers will attend the summit. At the EU-India Summit held in November 2004, the EU and Indian leaders had decided to upgrade the EU-India relationship to the level of a Strategic Partnership and to support this partnership through the implementation of a Joint Action Plan. The Joint Action Plan was endorsed at the 2005 Summit held here in September, including a range of proposed initiatives in the area of civil aviation aimed at strengthening co-operation between the EU and India in this priority field of activity.
-Nov 24, 2006