India's air passenger traffic to touch 500 million: Jayant Sinha

New Delhi : India's air passenger traffic is expected to reach 500 million in 10-15 years, Union Minister Jayant Sinha said on Wednesday.

According to the Minister of State for Civil Aviation, currently, India's aviation sector was able to service 160 million passengers a year while this stood at 900 million in the US and about 500 million in China.

Sinha was speaking at an event here organized by the US-India Strategic Partnership Forum.

"The Indian aviation sector is growing at an outstanding rate of 20 per cent a year. It's the world's fastest growing aviation market," Sinha said.

"But the rate at which we are growing and the potential that we see, in next 10-15 years, the aviation sector in India will triple to over 500 million passenger trips. That is the kind of opportunity that companies like Boeing and Honeywell are seeing."