India to make air travel affordable: Suresh Prabhu

First-ever Global Aviation Summit saw participation of 83 nations with over 1,000 delegates from these countries.

Mumbai: The first-ever two-day Global Aviation Summit was organised by the Ministry of Civil Aviation in association with Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) here earlier this week, with the theme “Flying for all”, to ride the exponential growth India has been witnessing in the aviation sector over the last four years.

The event saw the participation of 83 different countries with more than 1,000 delegates visiting from these countries. The event was also attended by Transport and Aviation ministers from countries like Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Maldives, Japan, Qatar, Poland, Georgia, Nigeria, among many others.

Apart from this, aviation regulators and Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCAs) of several countries were also part of the event. The event was also supported and attended by the ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organisation), IATA (International Air Transport Association), ACI (Airports Council International), and CANSO (Civil Air Navigation Services Organisation).

The summit also witnessed the presence of several CEOs and Managing Directors of top players in the aviation industry from across the world, including Ajay Singh, CMD SpiceJet, Palash Roy Chowdhury, MD India, Pratt & Whitney, Svilen Rangelov, Co-Founder and CEO, Dronamics, Adel Abdullah Ali, CEO, Air Arabia, Anand E. Stanley, President & MD, Airbus India, Akbar Al Baker, Group CEO, Qatar Airways, among many others.

The two-day summit was inaugurated on Tuesday by Civil Aviation Minister Suresh Prabhu, MoS for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha and Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis.

While opening the summit, Suresh Prabhu said, “All the aviation players from across the world is like a family; we need to come together and work together. We are working towards making air travel affordable. Along with this, we also need to make the civil aviation sector sustainable and environment friendly.”

The Ministry of Civil Aviation also unveiled the “Vision 2040” document that lays down the vision of the ministry towards developing the aviation sector and the needs and tasks that the ministry will undertake over the years. Along with this, the National Air Cargo Policy and the Drone Policy 2.0 were also unveiled by the Ministry by Suresh Prabhu and Jayant Sinha.