Indo-EU aviation summit to be held here tomorrow
New Delhi,
The Indo-EU Aviation Summit is being held here on November 23-24.
The meeting is being jointly organized by the Ministry of Civil Aviation of India and the Directorate General for Energy & Transport of the European Commission.
The summit will be inaugurated by Praful Patel, minister for Civil Aviation and Jacques Barrot, vice president of the European Commission.
This Aviation Summit is intended to bring together top-level policy makers and industry executives from all sectors involved in the European and Indian aviation and aerospace industries and services hence providing an important platform for enhancing co-operation between the EU and India in aviation.
Policy statements and business strategies will be at the center of the discussions, which will address a wide range of topical trends and new opportunities in EU-India aviation relations.
Issues that the EU-India Aviation Summit will address include political and regulatory developments in aviation in India and the EU, developments in EU-India passenger and cargo markets and safety and security policies and co-operation.
The EU-India Aviation Summit will be attended by key players from the public and private sectors in India and the EU. These are expected to include representatives of governments, airlines, airports and aerospace industries and service providers.
At the EU-India Summit held in November 2004, EU and Indian leaders decided to upgrade the EU-India relationship to the level of a Strategic Partnership and to support this partnership through the implementation of a Joint Action Plan.
The Joint Action Plan was endorsed at the 2005 Summit held in New Delhi in September 2005 including a range of proposed initiatives in the area of civil aviation aimed at strengthening co-operation between the EU and India in this priority field of activity.
In recent years Indian air traffic market has been among the fastest growing in the world.
In 2005, domestic air passenger traffic in India increased by 22 percent while international passenger traffic grew by 15 percent since 1990, the number of seats available on scheduled non-stop flights between the EU and India has increased from 2.6 to 5.5 million in 2005 (up 116 percent).
Capacity on EU-India routes is expected to grow even faster in the coming few years. With such a rapid development in air traffic, important new challenges and opportunities are emerging.