BENGALURU: India’s aviation industry is expected to witness around Rs 35,000-crore investment in the next four years which includes development of airport infrastructure along with aviation services, DK Sunil, Director, Engineering and R&D, HAL, has said.
Delivering a talk during a roadshow organised in Bengaluru to promote ‘Wings India 2024’, an aviation event to be held at Begumpet in Hyderabad from January 18 to 21, 2024, Sunil said the demand for Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) facilities are bound to increase due to consistent growth in the aviation sector. “India’s civil MRO industry is expected to grow from 800 US dollars in 2018 to more than 2.4 billion US Dollars by 2028,” he said.
“The Indian aviation industry has recovered fully from the Covid-19 pandemic shock as revealed by the 327.28 million Air Traffic Movements in the 2023 financial year as compared to 188.89 million movements in fiscal 2022. Aircraft carriers are expected to increase their fleet size to more than 1,100 aircraft by 2027,” Sunil said, adding that to cater to the rising air traffic, the number of operational airports will increase to 220 by 2025.
CM Ananda, Program Director for Civil Aircraft, Chief Scientist and Head, Aerospace, Electronics & systems Division & Chief Scientist, CSIR-National Aerospace Laboratories, said the HANSA-NG-CS VLA aircraft unveiled in the Wings event last year had received 100+ letters of intent. “In the upcoming Wings event, it is planned to announce the production partner for HANSA NG in India.”
CSIR NAL led the Project Definition Phase of a 90-seater Regional Transport Aircraft (RTA 90) completed successfully along with HAL and DRDO over 18 months.
Remi Mallard, chairman, president & MD, Airbus, South Asia & India, said, “Aviation infrastructure is constantly being upgraded in India. There is a need to focus on decarbonising aviation as well as sustainable aviation.” Gaurav Gupta, Additional Chief Secretary, Infrastructure, said Karnataka has invested heavily in infrastructure in its greenfield airports. The launch of air taxi operators in urban areas was being looked into with many U.S. operators showing interest, he said. “We are planning to provide them a place for assembling of their aircraft and operating them,” he said.
Vumlunmang Vualnam, Secretary, Ministry of Civil Aviation, said that India has 149 airports as on date, up from 74 airports in 2014. “Domestic traffic in aviation has boomed from 84.2 million to 136 million presently, a growth of 61.6%,” he said.
Hari Marar, CEO, BIAL said, “There will be a five-fold increase in air traffic in the next two decades. Capacity Building and Capability Building are required.”
1,500 DELEGATES, 1L VISITORS TO ATTEND MEET
Wings India will be Asia’s largest commercial and business aviation event. It is being organised by MOCA, Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry. Asangba Chuba Ao, Joint Secretary, MOCA, said, “There will be 1,500 delegates including 50-plus international delegates and 1 lakh general visitors.”