India Aviation show to take off in Hyderabad from March 16

Airbus' eco-friendly aircraft A320 Neo, just delivered to IndiGo, will also be on display

The fifth edition of India Aviation, an international exhibition and conference with the theme 'Indian Civil Aviation Sector: Potential as Global Manufacturing and MRO Hub' will be held in Hyderabad from March 16.

"Over 200 global players from 12 countries, including aircraft and helicopter makers like Boeing, Airbus, Textron, Embraer, Gulfstream, Dassault, Agusta Westland, Bell and Russian Helicopters, are expected to participate in the show," said Anil Srivastava, joint secretary to the Union Ministry of Civil Aviation.

The five-day biennial show is supported by Air India, Airports Authority of India, Director-General of Civil Aviation, Pawan Hans etc with the overseas associate for the show being Farnborough International Limited.

Following the inauguration by President Pranab Mukherjee, there will be a flying display by Mark Jefferies from the UK. Airbus' eco-friendly aircraft A320 Neo, which was just delivered to budget carrier IndiGo, will also be on display.

Stating that India, which currently is the ninth largest civil aviation market in the world, is on a journey to become the third-largest market by 2020, after the US and China, Srivastava said over 85 international airlines were operating to India while five Indian carriers were connecting more than 40 countries.

"India is one of the least penetrated air markets with 0.04 trips per capita per year, as compared with 0.3 of China and more than 2 in the US," he added.

According to him, India has registered an impressive growth of 13 per cent and 10 per cent compound annual growth rate CAGR) in passenger and cargo throughput, respectively, during FY2003 and FY2013.

The aviation sector is experiencing dramatic growth across the board, owing to the opening up of the airport infrastructure to private sector participation, growth in business and leisure travel, increase in inflows of foreign direct investment, emergence of LCCs and new carriers, large-scale investments in airport infrastructure and growth in the air cargo industry, Srivastava said.

By 2020, passenger traffic at Indian airports is expected to increase to 450 million, from 159.3 million in 2012-13. The aviation sector is likely to see investments totalling $12.1 billion during the 12th Five-Year Plan, of which $9.3 billion is expected to come from the private sector.

"Around 200 low-cost airports are planned to be built in the next 20 years to connect Tier-II and Tier-III cities. About $1.3 billion is planned to be spent on non-metro projects by 2017, mainly focusing on the modernisation and upgradation of airports," he said.