AERO EXPO 2017
AIBM
January - March 2018
At an annual growth rate of 12 percent, the Indian civil aviation industry is showing a lot of hope, and with the inclusion of new policies and bridging of erstwhile gaps, the sector is poised for exponential growth.
The second edition of Aero Expo 2017 was inaugurated in New Delhi in the month of November by Indian Vice President Venkaiah Naidu, Union Minister for Civil Aviation P Ashok Gajapathi Raju, and Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha.
Organised under the patronage of the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA), the exhibition brought together leaders from the Indian civil aviation industry and also foreign players present in the Indian market.
The event saw participants offering new tourism products and services while discussing the future of the civil aviation industry and its existing loopholes.
Better inclusion of helicopter services under the Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS), clearing land and air congestion, timely land acquisition, application of the new drone policy, and the importance of having a master plan, were some of the key subjects of discussion.
Speaking during a session, Sinha informed that draft regulations for drones have already been finalised and that its applications would be for not only e-commerce but also for agriculture and monitoring of all sorts of products, including exploring possibilities for launching air rickshaws for travelling smaller distances.
According to him, the draft regulations for drones will not gulp down e-commerce jobs but convert e-commerce delivery boys currently on motorbikes into pilots and engineers. This is how the government foresees futuristic developments in Indian civil aviation space, Sinha added.
Talking about the huge size and potential of the Indian civil aviation sector, Sinha said the aspiration for industry is to handle a billion passenger trips per year. Currently, the Indian civil aviation sector handles 200 million passenger trips, and is growing at an annual rate of 12 percent, a rate claimed to be better than some other leading countries.
Assuring on the continuous growth of the sector, Gajapathi Raju said that regulations and procedures that are found to be uncalled for, would be done away with as the current regime is pro-active in terms of policy orientation for a win-win situation for each stakeholder in the civil aviation sector.
Challenges facing the industry were also brought to the table. During the event, Naidu stressed on evolving security related norms for the aviation sector to completely plug any possibility of air traffic accidents and also succeed in ensuring total air safety for the entire air and cargo traffic.
“The issue of air safety and completely accident-free air traffic should be ensured with stringent norms in place so that flying and cargo movements are optimised. Though the government has taken the twin issue with utmost sincerity, a lot more needs to be done on this front so that accidents in civil aviation become a thing of the past,” the Vice President said.
