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Looking for space to spread their wings

— Photo: Rajeev Bhatt

An Indian Airlines plane flies past over a new Boeing A-321 aircraft that joined the Air India fleet at the Palam AirForce Station in New Delhi on July 28.

It seems that a kind of India fever is raging across the world. A bullish market, an economy on a high growth trajectory, a booming middle class, and an expanding business community — all these have served to make India attractive for multinational companies and global airlines. The level of growth of the country’s civil aviation sector has been amazing, with only the limitations of infrastructure holding back higher volumes of traffic being achieved — in terms of passenger numbers as well as cargo quantum.

In the not-too-distant past, airlines in India were forced to let foreign airlines take away the bulk of the traffic. An outdated aviation policy and ill-equipped airlines saw airlines in the region and outside catering to the Indian tourist traffic — both outbound and inbound.

Now Union Minister of State for Civil Aviation Praful Patel has initiated a series of moves to prepare domestic airlines for the challenges ahead. A few years ago, a couple of private domestic airlines made an appearance in the Indian skies. Today there is a virtual explosion of numbers in the sector — thanks to the birth of new airlines, a huge growth in domestic air traffic, and the country’s airlines going for global routes.

First, the private airlines began flying the regional routes in South and South-East Asia. Then they flew to the United States and the United Kingdom. Now they are reaching out to the rest of Europe and East Asia too. Not to be left out, Air India and Indian Airlines — the two national carriers — have merged and launched their most ambitious fleet expansion programme in recent years. They are chalking up marketing strategies to take on not just other Indian airlines, but also the global ones.

International carriers too have begun expanding their services, significantly increasing their flights to and from the country, and connecting more cities. SriLankan Airlines has increased its weekly flights on a half-yearly basis to 99 services a week, including the latest connection in Coimbatore. Air Emirates now has 92 flights a week to various Indian cities. Singapore Airlines and its subsidiary Silk Air, eyeing the burgeoning Indian market, cater to the rising tourist traffic to East and South- East Asian destinations from various Indian cities. They operate 55 flights a week to eight Indian destinations.

Jet Airways has expanded its operations substantially, offering direct flights to Western centres. With London becoming quite crowded, airlines in India have gone in for direct flights to the U.S. with a stopover in West Asia or Europe where necessary. Brussels is the European hub for Jet Airways services to the U.S. and Canada. There will be flights not just to New York, but also to Newark, Chicago, and Washington. Foreign operations are expected to cross-subsidise domestic services, which are witnessing a huge fare war.

The international connections will be open to Deccan and Kingfisher, which have now come together, in early 2008. While Deccan, the low-cost airline, will fly to regional destinations such as Colombo, Singapore, Malaysia, and a couple of West Asian cities, Kingfisher will operate the long-haul routes to Europe and the Americas. Kingfisher will be the first Indian airline to acquire the super jumbo Airbus A380. Airbus is trying to sell 10 of these planes to Air India.

Considering the projected growth in the number of aircraft and crew, some airlines have started thinking about the infrastructure required. Air India and the public sector Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. may be going in for joint maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) facilities with a foreign tie-up. Boeing has promised to invest in such projects in India in return for the huge order that Air India has placed with it. Jet Airways is also thinking of an MRO facility, in addition to a training academy in the south, most probably in Chennai.

In addition to existing bilateral aviation agreements, India is working on a pact with the European Union as a whole. So either of these agreements can hold good and both sides can make the best use of the potential. Ultimately, India is moving towards an Open Skies policy, but as in the case of Free Trade Agreements, there is bound to be a negative or “sensitive” list of countries to deal with. Aviation authorities say that in bilateral agreements, there are some special or specific problems such as landing rights. For instance, in small countries such as Sri Lanka and Singapore, which provide for substantial traffic, there is only one landing airport each. On the other hand, airlines of these countries are spreading out to as many centres as possible — north, south, east and west.

But given the mounting pressure on Indian airports and the demand for more landing centres for international flights, the Centre and the States will have to work on the infrastructure front in a time-bound manner. Only then can the airlines and airports cope with the projected increase in traffic.

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