Civil aviation in India is slowly progressing to catch up with its global peers. It just needs to focus on maintaining quality and financial prudence
An Air-India aircraft, 1950
As the shadow of the pandemic fades from India’s air traffic, air travel is getting back to normal. More than 100 million people are traveling domestically. This is expected to reach 166 million next year as all COVID-related restrictions are gone and international travelers are also moving freely. India is already the fourth largest aviation market after the US, China and Europe. There are 129 operational airports in the country. Indian skies witnessed 11,757,112 air movements at the end of March 2022, prompting the country to develop more airports. In the next four years, India expects this number to reach 220.
India was on pace with its global peers even before independence and had a commercial fleet of 74 DC-3 Dakotas, 12 Vikings, three DC-4s and various small craft, which were largely owned by royals, bureaucrats, politicians, businessmen. and used to take the nobles.
After independence, the country opted for the nationalization mode and eight independent domestic airlines—Deccan Airways, Airways India, Bharat Airways, Himalayan Aviation, Kalinga Airlines, Indian National Airways, Air India and Air Services of India—to make it national merged. The carrier, India Airlines, while the international routes owned by the Tata Group were taken over to form Air India. Eventually, in 2021, Air India was sold back to Tata Sons. In seven decades, the country’s skies have seen massive changes, although India may be slow in adding air infrastructure such as airports, upgrading equipment and airplanes. The poor health and poor policies of the airlines are to blame along with the inability to make decisions. In 1995, when India again began to open its skies to private companies, investments started pouring in. So did failures. The two big airlines—Kingfisher and Jet Airways—failed, and SpiceJet struggled financially and had to change many hands. Today, more than 10 private companies provide passenger services. And players like IndiGo, SpiceJet, Go Air and Vistara—a joint venture between Tata Sons and Singapore Airlines—are already flying to overseas shores. In fact, Vistara went ahead and is taking on narrow-bodied aircraft in long-haul flights to London. SpiceJet is following suit by opening up more markets for Indian players.
lead essay , Freedom@75 | a new try with luck
India may be flying slower than its global peers, but make no mistake, it is catching on. Only the focus needs to be on maintaining the quality.
Tope: An Air India aircraft among other aircraft at Mumbai airport, October 2021; (Photo: Getty)