As the burgeoning spate of growth in air traffic continues, an explosive rise of 40 per cent is also projected in the number of privately-owned planes, like small aircraft or business jets in the next couple of years.

Such a whopping growth would, however, put further strain on the already low availability of infrastructure and manpower.

As against an overall growth of 25-30 per cent in the sector, the non-scheduled charters or private operations, also known as general aviation, is slated to grow by about 40 per cent, as per projections based on official statistics.

The fleet acquired for private use, especially by business houses, doubled last year, as against only 50 business aircraft in 2005.

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The estimates show that one aircraft would be added in the overall fleet strength of the country every three days for the next two years, thereby tripling the total fleet.

Industry sources said about 300 applications for aircraft import for general aviation were pending before the government, which had last year cleared about 100 such applications.

Almost all major business houses and high net worth individuals are joining the queue to become aircraft owners, the sources said, adding that even some medium and small companies were buying planes.

Pointing out that there were no separate guidelines for general aviation aircraft, the sources said the prime reasons for poor growth of general aviation so far were lack of infrastructure, 'restrictive' regulations for aircraft import, operations and training, besides lack of skilled manpower.

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