India to overtake US aviation market by 2038, says Jayant Sinha

With one billion passenger journeys a year, India is set to overtake the US aviation market, said Jayant Sinha, aviation minister.

“India will become the world’s second biggest market by 2038,” Sinha was quoted as saying in Financial Times.

According to forecasts from the International Air Transport Association, the rapid growth in passenger travel will see India leapfrog the US but lag China, whose own growth in passenger trips will see it overtake America by 2022, reported the daily.

India’s aviation sector has boomed recently, with the number of passenger trips doubling to 200 million over the past four years, Sinha told FT.

According to Iata’s forecast, Indian passenger trip growth would put it at a more modest 478 million a year by 2036.

India has the fastest-growing domestic airline industry in the world. Last year, passenger volumes rose 17.4% per cent, ahead of second-placed China, which grew at 13.5%, according to Iata.

To meet capacity constraints, the government is planning to build 50 airports and helipads in the next five years, Sinha told FT, and a further 50 in the decade after that.