Amidst the global air fare hike and consequently plummeting figures of air travelers, this perhaps should bring a smile to the anxious faces in the aviation industry of India and also the European Union. A recent data points out that the air passenger traffic between the European Union and India has actually grown much swiftly in the last two years when compared with China. The air passenger traffic between India and EU in 2006 in comparison to 2004 went up by 57.2 per cent. It increased by 25.6 percent in 2006 against 2005.

 

On the other hand, the air passenger traffic between the EU and China increased by 38.3 per cent in 2006 over 2004. As per the estimates of the European Union, the fastest growing region in 2006 was the Indian subcontinent recording a growth of 21.5 percent compared with 2005. Thereafter follows East Africa with a 12.6 per cent growth and the Middle East with 9.1 per cent growth. Records show that 5.1 million passengers traveled by air between EU and India in 2006, whereas the figure of 2007’s first half is 2.85 million passengers.