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India flies to the top league in aviation

An integrated plan to speed up the work on the airports needs to be put in place

— FILE PHOTO

EXPLOSIVE GROWTH: Flight landing at Chennai airport.

Led by Air India, the airlines in India have kept the order books of aircraft manufacturers overflowing for the next three to five years. Even according to the U.S based Boeing, the Indian aviation market needs 856 new planes over the next 15 to 20 years. Air India rewrote history by ordering the largest number of aircraft ever for Boeing — 68 new planes at an estimated cost of $11.6 billion.

Assuming that different airlines — public and private alike — split their orders equally between America’s Boeing and the European Airbus Industrie, each of them can secure orders for about $36 billion at current rates.

Along with the defence and nuclear sectors of the country, which are now offering the best markets in the world today, the aviation sector has now emerged a top flier. But all this puts the pressure squarely on the aviation infrastructure in the country — an issue that Union Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel highlighted in a recent interview to this newspaper.

Following Air India, Indian Airlines placed an order for 43 Airbus aircraft of different models. With the two national carriers already going through the process of merger on August 1, Air India, the new merged entity, will fly out its first 777 Boeing on its direct flight to New York. The airline’s order with Boeing will bring to its fleet a complement of the “Dreamliner” - 787.

Similarly, Kingfisher has booked to become the country’s first airline to acquire the Super jumbo Airbus A 380. Every airline in the country — from Air Deccan and Spice Jet, to Paramount Airways, IndiGo, and Jet Airways — firm orders for supply of new aircraft from one of the two aircraft majors. To meet their current market demand, most airlines have taken aircraft on lease.

At a time when mergers and acquisitions (M&As) have become the market trend even in the aviation sector, Air India and Indian Airlines integrate to become potentially one of the largest airlines in the world. Jet Airways has already acquired Air Sahara, while Kingfisher appears set to not only take a 26 per cent stake in Air Deccan, but also perhaps make it a subsidiary. Airline sources argue that these M&As A help consolidate the market and ensure economy of scales. Considering the fare wars in the market already, each airline wants to trim costs, rationalise operations, and synergise the handling to keep down the overheads to remain competitive.

With such large fleets of aircraft to be added to an already burgeoning aviation scenario, the pressure on airports for parking, maintenance, handling, and other services will increase manifold. The question now is whether the Government, the Civil Aviation Ministry, the Airports Authority of India, the airlines, State governments and the existing airports in the country are preparing for this explosive growth. The kind of maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) facilities required by 2020 or so must also be taken into account in this overall plan.

Looking at some of the existing airports can hardly be reassuring. Be it in New Delhi or Mumbai, Bangalore or Chennai, Hyderabad or Thiruvananthapuram, the congestion at the airports and the terminal buildings during peak hours defies an early solution.

Unless the massive programme to redevelop the New Delhi and Mumbai airports, complete the greenfield airports in Hyderabad and Bangalore, expand and modernise the Kolkata and Chennai airports, besides fast-tracking the modernisation and expansion of 35 non-metro airports is expedited, the confusion is bound to become confounded. Add to this the demand by more and more international airlines to operate more flights to India, and to more centres in the country, the picture becomes even more complex.

Given this pace of growth and the ballooning air traffic — both international and domestic — an integrated plan to speed up the work on the airports and train the requisite manpower required to propel this growth needs to be put in place. A task force of efficient ministers, officials from different agencies involved in this challenge, and airline representatives should be asked to look into all these aspects and ensure that the aviation infrastructure falls into place at least within the next five years – in the XI Plan.

V. JAYANTH

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