The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has called on the government of India to maximise the potential contribution of aviation to India’s development by addressing infrastructure constraints that limit growth and government policies that impose excessive costs on aviation.

IATA Director General and CEO Alexandre de Juniac was speaking at the International Aviation Summit in Delhi, co-hosted by the Indian Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA), the Airports Authority India (AAI) and IATA.

IATA cites growth forecasts for India indicating a trebling of passenger demand by 2037 when some 500 million people are expected to fly to, from or within India. “It is clear that India has the capacity to develop effective infrastructure... And infrastructure must not be a bottleneck in fulfilling the needs of travellers and the economy,” said de Juniac who called for work in four priority areas:

• Development of a comprehensive and strategic masterplan — not “Band-Aid solutions” — for India’s airports.

• Removal of all obstacles to successfully open Navi Mumbai as quickly as possible, to provide urgent relief for Mumbai’s severe capacity bottleneck.

• Modernisation of airport processes using technology in line with global standards. He cited the DigiYatra initiative which he said will make a significant step in the right direction with digitally connected airports, passengers, systems and flights.

• Flexible use of military airspace to expand airspace capacity for civil operations, following the successful demonstration of a conditional airway through restricted airspace over Bhuj.