Indian Aviation Minister Pushes for 500 New Airports
Speaking on the 23rd September 2007, India’s Civil Aviation Minister, Praful Patel, urged for the construction of a minimum of 500 new small-scale airports, in line with the country’s projected expansion within the regional airline industry. "The government is promoting regional airlines. That is where the traffic is ... The US has 5,100 operational airports. Why can't we have at least 500?”, said Mr Patel. His comments came as he laid the initial foundation stone at the site of a new development at the Behala Flying Club.
Mr Patel did not detail a timescale for the 500 airports’ development. However, he did state that, since he took up his current post three years ago, 30 new airports had become operational.
The projected statistics relating to Civil Aviation in India are staggering. Over the coming decade, three million new positions of employment are anticipated to become available. By 2012, 650 additional airliners are expected to be in service – up from a present 350. This last factor, according to Mr Patel, means that “we will need more pilots”. He continued: “There are 1,000 pilots from abroad working in India now. We do not have enough pilots from India. It is good that a flying training institute has been set up here (Behala). We need similar institutions elsewhere as well."
As previously reported in Airport International, a recent study suggested the need for India to develop 10 larger-scale airports by 2020. The cities hosting these potentially include Ahmedabad, Amritsar, Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Nagpur and Pune.
Not so long ago, the notion of travelling on an airliner was an untenable dream for the majority of Indians. However, fast-tracked economic development has acted to render air travel more affordable.
India’s national airline is Air India, which operates all over the world. It currently has 135 aircraft within its fleet, of which the majority are from the Airbus family. Data published last month puts the average age of the fleet at 14.3 years.
Source – Airport International’s Asian Correspondent
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