The aviation traffic in India is registering a growth of about 17%.  This information was given by Shri Praful Patel, Minister for Civil Aviation in the Lok Sabha today in a written reply to a question.

            The total scheduled traffic of the world is about 1.7 billion passengers out of which India’s share is about 36 million.  The developing countries all round the world have lower volumes of air traffic compared to developed world because of their overall economic conditions.

            To improve the existing status, the government has taken certain measures:

• Granting of permission to new Indian domestic carriers to start operations.
• Granting of enhanced capacity entitlements to foreign carriers under the bilateral ASA’s.
• Designation of private Indian carriers on international sectors to increase India’s utilization of bilateral entitlements.
• Upgrading airport infrastructure and improving ATC capacity.
• Granting permission for building new Greenfield airports with public/private partnership.

MC/GK