With domestic air travel forecast to grow by 25% a year for the next five years, the Indian aviation market is booming, and carriers, the government, and aircraft manufacturers are working overtime to keep up with demand.

In April, the U.S. and India signed an Open Skies agreement, and by the end of this month, U.S. carriers are expected to raise the number of flights between the two countries by 84% and the number of seats by 81%. Including flights operated by Indian carriers, the number of flights between the two countries is expected to rise 70%.

FAA is working with the Indian government to implement GAGAN, India's satellite-navigation system, to handle the expected growth in domestic traffic and to integrate the system seamlessly into the satellite navigation systems used by Japan, the European Union and the U.S., FAA Administrator Marion Blakey said.

To meet demand for aircraft, the Boeing predicts it will deliver 492 aircraft to Indian carriers between 2005 and 2024, revising its estimates upward from 370 aircraft for the 2004-2023 period, according to Dinesh Keskar, senior vice president of sales and president of Boeing Aircraft Trading.

To accommodate the increased traffic, the government of India is investing to upgrade infrastructure, including airports and the road, rail and sea links to serve them. Minister for Civil Aviation Praful Patel said the government plans to shore up the country's network of secondary airports to alleviate some of the burden on Mumbai and New Delhi, which together handle 60% of the country's traffic. To start, new terminals and runways are being built by private-public partnerships at two key airports in the South, Hyderabad and Bangalore. Plans are also being laid for a second airport in Mumbai, across the harbor from the city in Navi Mumbai.

Patel said the government is devoting resources to an intermodal cargo, MRO and passenger hub in Nagpur -- the country's first such hub.