India to add 1,000 aircraft in 7-8 yrs, says official

The country is going to add 1,000 aircraft over the next 7-8 years, a top government official said Tuesday.

India is the fastest growing domestic aviation market and has been registering double-digit growth for more than 50 consecutive weeks.

Civil Aviation Secretary R N Choubey said the country is an aviation locomotive for the world and provides humongous opportunities for players across the globe to grow.

"We would be adding about 1,000 more aircraft in about next 7-8 years," Choubey said, adding that the country would also be having 100 more airports and one billion trips in the next 15 years.

Scheduled domestic carriers have more than 600 planes in their fleets, according to the vision document released by the civil aviation ministry Tuesday.

The domestic aviation has been growing at 20 per cent every year for the last four years and the growth has been sustained, Choubey said.

"This growth is going to be there for at least 20 more years, if only the oil prices behave," he said at the Global Aviation Summit organised by industry body Ficci.

He also said the government is committed to ensuring that nothing would come in the way of this growth, not even the infrastructure-related issues.