India witnessed a significant increase in domestic and international air traffic during 2004- 2005 over the previous year, according to annual review report released here Friday by Indian Ministry of Civil Aviation.

The report says that "The recent growth in the Civil Aviation Sector has been more than encouraging."

In fact, during the year 2004-05, air transport witnessed a very high growth of above 24 percent over the previous year, the report said.

The Airports Authority of India (AAI) handled 7.3 lakh aircraft movements in 2004-05, an increase of 12 percent over the previous year. Up to 59 million passengers traveled during the period, an increase of 20 percent over the previous year.

Cargo also saw an increase of 22 percent during the same period.

"The growth of service sector now demands a faster, safer and wider network of air service. If the present growth trend can be sustained, civil aviation will be the reason for the 'take off' of the Indian economy," the report said.

Five new airlines, Air Deccan, Kingfisher, Spice Jet, Paramount Airways and Go Airlines, have started operations in past one-and- half year or so. Two more new airlines, Inter Globe and Indus Airways, are expected to start operations shortly.

The report said that liberalization of air services in the last year has created history. It has increased connectivity and helped lower fares.

Under a revised air services agreement with USA, both sides can designate any number of services to any point in the territory of the other country with full intermediate and beyond traffic rights.

Similarly traffic rights were enhanced with 18 other countries also in order to enable greater connectivity to/from India e.g. Australia, UK, Germany, China, France, Netherlands, Belgium, Canada, Singapore, Mauritius, New Zealand and UAE.

Also, the Aircraft Act and Aircraft Rules have been reviewed from time to time to keep the provisions abreast of international standards.

The report added that besides restructuring the Delhi and Mumbai airports and Greenfield airports approved to be set up at Bangalore and Hyderabad, Airports Authority of India (AAI) has decided to modernize 35 tentatively selected non-metro airports to world class standards.

Source: Xinhua