Mumbai, Jan 8 (IANS): Against the backdrop of the International Civil Aviation Organisation's (ICAO) prediction of a "100 percent increase in global air travel by 2030", the first-ever two-day Global Aviation Summit-2019 with the theme of 'Flying For All' will open here on January 15, officials said here.

Organised by the Ministry of Civil Aviation along with FICCI, the first GAS-2019 will discuss how to ride this strong tailwind of growth and pave the way forward for the aviation sector.

The GAS is supported by ICAO, Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) of the US, IATA, Civil Air Navigation Services Organisation, Airports Council International and Association of Asia-Pacific Airlines and will include conferences, exhibitions and G2G, G2B and B2B exchanges.

The official said that with hundreds of millions of people joining the global middle-class, the demand for air travel is witnessing an unforeseen upsurge, creating a need for extensive efforts to bring the entire aviation ecosystem to pace.

The global aviation industry is already in a high-growth trajectory, ushering an era of rapid expansion and the biggest driver of demand will be the emerging economies, and need to cater to air travel for nearly six billion people.

The GAS will focus on 'Flying For All' to provide a platform to the aviation fraternity to showcase the challenges in newly developing growth spots and understand how technology-driver innovations will change air travel in future.

It will also provide a comprehensive platform for civil aviation with a vivid representation from the global aviation ecosystem comprising global airline leaders, manufacturers, investors, vendors, cargo, space industry, banking institutions, skill developers and Indian states and Union Territories.

Discussions will be held on safety and security standards in the fast-growing aviation system, the future of drones, sustainable growth of aviation, cargo and logistics.