Business Aircraft Operator’s Association (BAOA), a recognised and unified voice for the business aviation industry in India, today envisaged a growth in the general aviation sector with investments of 4 billion dollars and an addition of 1000 aircraft to the current fleet by 2020. To continue the growth story would require better infrastructure facilities and reforms in systems and policy, BAOA President Rohit Kapur told reporters on the sidelines of the 3rd International India aviation 2012 here. There is neither a plan nor policy, forcing Business Aviation to work in absence of a proper framework and the problem perisists due to a wrong mindset of the regulators, he pointed out.
The average growth witnessed by the sector has been 12.5 per cent CAGR over the past decade, which showed down to about 7 per cent in 2011 due to infrastructure and policy issues, However, the growth is expected to double in 2013 as India is on radar of the global aviation industry, he opined. The infrastructure development is a prerequisite for the growth of business and general aviation, he said, adding India has 150 airports in comparison with Brazil and the US which has more than 4,000 and 13,000 airports, respectively.
BAOA has been in talks with Ministry of Civil Aviation to dicuss investments in dedicated general aviation airpots, especically in metros, he added. “We expect, given the conducive environment, the MRO industry, which is at 450 million dollars should reach 1.4 billion dollars with additional of 30 functional airports by 2017, BAOA Managing Director Capt, Karan Singh said. UNI