MUMBAI: Nine airlines. 350 aircraft. Funding and infrastructure—a big question mark. This sums up the booming Indian aviation sector.
In the last six months, private Indian airline companies have placed orders for 250 aircraft, representing 43 per cent of the total global orders placed with aircraft manfacturers Airbus and Boeing.
Add the 93 planes that national carriers Air-India and Indian Airlines are expected to order, and India’s share of the global aircraft market zooms beyond 50 per cent. (Globally, Airbus and Boeing have secured combined orders of 573—Airbus 296 and Boeing 277— compared with 647 in the whole of last year.)
The aviation world stands divided over India’s ability to sustain such explosive growth. Noel Forgeard, Airbus president & CEO, is reported to have said at the Paris air show, ‘China and India should be the drivers of growth in the future,’’ a view that IATA director-general Giovanni Bisignani shares.
However, Boeing’s Dinesh Keskar is not amused.“The world is sceptical about the way Indian new-born carriers are ordering planes. How are they going to get so many pilots, where is the infrastructure?” he asked.
Look who’s buying these birds in India. Complete unknowns—until even a few days ago. IndiGo Air, promoted by Delhi based air travel services company InterGlobeEnterprises, on Thursday announced the acquisition of 100 A-320 aircraft.
Nine Desi Firms Are In Global Market For 350 Aircraft.
The aviation boom is definitely a leading indicator of things to come - I read somewhere that the Indian travel industry is expected to generate 10 million jobs over the next 10 years :k:
The upsurge is only natural as its India’s turn to transition into the budget air travel era, trying to capitalize on the opportunity to offer services to those who previously couldn’t even imagine travelling by air. In that sense, the aviation boom is a lagging indicator… corroborating the economy’s well being.
What remains to be seen is whether the momentum can be sustained. In the U.S. and Canada, we’ve seen the ills of budget travel and many insolvencies over the past five years. Having said that, I’m thinking that global aircraft leasing firms like GE Capital Services would now have learnt from their mistakes to advise their new clients a little better.
^ you don't buy brand spanking new planes if you are establishing a budget travel model. Budget airlines work because their cost of goods are superior to that of larger carriers with a higher cog.
There is large indian middle class who are quite mobile. I have seen people commuting hundreds of km. Their main mode of transport is through train. Indian trains are quite slow, maximum speed at 100-120km per hour and often late.
The main airlines had priced their tickets quite high. For egs. the Indian airlines direct economic class ticket from chennai(madras) to Kochi(cochin) is around 5000Rs. But with the advent of budget airlines the indian airlines have scheems in which if u book 18days in advance the ticket price goes down to 1500rs or so.
This range is quite affordable.. and i think the budjet airlines main area of thrust would be to shift the high class AC 3rd class coach passengers from the Indian raiways to the air travell.
I can see there is demand for air travel. Hope India will have sufficient high quality skilled air traffic controllers, pilots, maintenance engineers and security infrastructure.
If all this is possible, why can't the country solve the road-side open air toilette atrocity? Surely there is money and space to build restrooms
well its not one day delivery notice, will take 10 years or so to complete these orders.
but sudden huge intake will force out some ventures certainly.
in next ten years indians have to build infrastructure to cope with these birds. is regulator allowed so many planes without having in place ??? and no consideration for environment?
air traffic control? new airports?
but on the whole its good news for consumers who will get the cheap prices cause of competition.
Indian space corridors will be the most unsafe in the region in the coming years, not that they are any safer at the moment, with all those planes zipping around.....Air saftey, be it civilian or military has not been a forte of India.....it surely won't be in the coming years.....Plus their airports and aviation infrastructure are hardly upto task to handle the exponential growth in the travelers and are generally in a dilapidated state......This plane these is rather a case of irrational exuberance....there will some quite a few early exists from the market, especially those getting into the business to boost their egoes or trying to become the desi Richard Branson overnight....
and i will be the happiest person in teh world the day pakistanis learn from the indian entrepreneurial spirit and endeavourship :k: ..on the other hand pakistanis are still not sure if they can even afford to buy 8 or so props to replace decades old fokkers..
I don't think the Pakistani entrepreneurial are stupid, they are smart, they are looking out for their money. I mean who knows if there will be a Pakistan in the next 25 years. They are better off investing in India then Pakistan.
All these planes would really come in handy when used in place of bullcarts.....Its a huge bubble....will eventually burst, leaving many losers in the market place....
and stinky attendents.