Address a workshop for media, Hardeep S Puri, Minister of State (I/C) for Civil Aviation has stated that the government is moving in the direction to make India a MRO and leasing Hub. On this occasion, the Minister also released an Air India Book titled “Air India- Celebrating India through Images”. He also launched the ‘Aviation Jobs Portal’’- a unique web-based portal which brings together job seekers and prospective employers in the Indian civil aviation sector.
The workshop began with an overview of the sector provided by P.S Kharola, Secretary, Ministry of Civil Aviation and was followed by presentations from Anuj Agarwal, Chairman, Airports Authority of India; Arun Kumar, Director General of Civil Aviation; Ashwani Lohani, CMD, Air India and Jyoti Narayan, Jt DG, Bureau of Civil Aviation Security. B.S. Bhullar, Chairman, AERA and senior officials of the Ministry also attended the workshop.
Speaking on the occasion, Kharola said that the fast-paced growth of Indian economy is reflected in ever increasing passenger and cargo traffic at Indian airports. Double digit growth is registered in passenger traffic consistently during the last five years. Not only airports in metro cities, but other major airports are also witnessing growth. According to IATA, India is poised to become the third largest aviation market by 2024. The same is reflected in terms of growth rate of 11.1 per cent and 15.3 per cent for aircraft movements and passenger traffic respectively during the last five years (2014-19) he said.
Agarwal while making a presentation said that the Airports Authority of India has made rapid strides during the past 5 years. Air traffic in India continues to grow rapidly and this trend is likely to continue in the future. Airports Authority of India has up scaled the services and systems to ensure efficient, smooth and uninterrupted air traffic management. Some of the major new initiatives taken during the last five years are : implementation of central-air traffic flow management system at IGIA, New Delhi; implementation of Mobile tower at eight RCS airports and implementation of Ground based Augmentation system (G-BAS) at Chennai Airport.
Among other achievements, he said that 4 new greenfield airports viz., Durgapur, Shirdi, Pakyong and Kannur have been operationalised during 2014-2019. To provide more international options from Indian airports, 3 more airports viz Tirupati, Vijayawada and Kannur have been designated as international airports. Surat and Indore airports have been notified as Customs Airport. The sector has generated tremendous employment opportunities. AAI has recruited 6906 personnel in various disciplines in last 05 years (2014-19) as compared to number of candidates recruited being 4860 during the period of 10 years (2004-14).
Lohani said that Air India Group operates 159 aircraft and commenced new/increased frequencies at 83 domestic and 51 international destinations, and established 35 UDAN routes in the last 5 years. The revenues have grown from Rs.16,000 crore during 2012-13 to Rs.23,900 crore in 2017-18 while the passenger load factor has increased from 72 per cent to 79.6 per cent. Air India has record number of women pilots i.e. 11 per cent of total strength of pilots compared to average 2-3 per cent even in advanced countries.
