India has been slow to take to the aviation sector, leading to many disasters like Kingfisher Airlines going bust, but now that it has, the country has taken massive strides and has become a global leader now! Union Civil Aviation Minister Suresh Prabhu on Tuesday said India is the fastest growing aviation market in the world. The minister also said that India witnessed a 19.6 per cent growth in air passenger traffic in June.

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The minister, who was in Uttar Pradesh to flag off a SpiceJet flight from Kanpur to Delhi under the UDAN scheme, said the growth achieved was in line with the government's thinking on the entire country benefitting from the aviation sector.

"Under #leadership of @PMOIndia @narendramodi ji #Aviation sector is doing rapid progress.We are fastest growing aviation market in world. Another record month of huge advancement, provisional air traffic growth for June is 19.6 per cent which is in line with our thinking, let all benefit," the minister tweeted.

However, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), in its latest traffic data for May, said that domestic air passenger traffic grew 16.53 per cent to 11.86 million during the month over the same period a year ago.

Twelve domestic airlines together flew 11.85 million passengers as compared to 10.17 million passengers in May last year, the DGCA said.

Prabhu termed the aviation sector as a sector with immense possibilities. Investment of 10 lakh crore rupees will be made to expand air service in the country, he said.

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After launching a daily flight between Kanpur and Delhi under the UDAN scheme, the minister said a direct flight would soon commence from Gorakhpur to Nepal. He added that more than 50 cities across the country have been brought under the ambit of the aviation circuit in order to promote regional flying.

Meanwhile, aviation stocks such as Jet Airways, SpiceJet and IndiGo were trading flat in Wednesday's trade.