Air traffic is booming in India, even though only a tiny fraction of its people fly each year, and manufacturers are seeking lucrative deals at the flagship Aero India exhibition from Monday.The International Air Transport Association (IATA) will also hold its annual general meeting in June in New Delhi, the capital of the world’s fifth-largest economy, another clear sign of India’s market punch.
The sustained growth of its economy and middle class have made India and its 1.4 billion people the third-largest air market in the world, after the United States and China.
“India is the rising star of global aerospace,” said Remi Maillard, Airbus India and South Asia chief. “It is the fastest-growing commercial aviation market in the world — and it will remain so for the next 20 years.”
Airbus rival Boeing, which will also take part in the five-day Aero India show in Bengaluru for global aero vendors organised by the defence ministry, is equally enthusiastic.
“It’s the most dynamic market on the planet — and certainly the most exciting,” Boeing India head Salil Gupte told AFP.
India’s civil aviation ministry boasts of “soaring skies” in a sector “experiencing a meteoric rise”.
That growth should lead to an increase in traffic in South Asia, mainly in India, of more than seven percent per year until 2043, according to Boeing’s forecasts.
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