India will need 1,750 passenger & cargo aircraft over next 20 yrs: Report

India is set to become the world's third largest aviation market by 2019-20

India will require 1,750 new passenger and cargo aircraft over the next 20 years to meet an exponential rise in both passenger and freight traffic, according to Airbus' latest India Market Forecast.

To help meet this growth, India will need 1,320 new single-aisle aircraft and 430 wide-body aircraft valued at $255 billion.

The projections are based on a year-on-year growth in traffic serving the Indian market at 8.1 per cent in the next 20 years, almost twice as fast as the world average of 4.4 per cent.

"India is going to witness over five-fold growth in air traffic in the