Up, up and away

AVIATION

Offers, discounts, multiple airlines "" the Indian passenger has never had it so good in the 20th century.

Kashi Nath Memani, the 60-something former chairman of Ernst & Young India, remembers flying in 1975 as a somewhat painful experience. Tickets on key sectors like Mumbai to Delhi were not easy to get, besides being frightfully expensive.

Now, in 2005, it is a totally different experience. Though India has yet to catch up with global standards, Memani feels travelling by air is much more affordable and accessible today than it was 30 years ago.

From just one domestic carrier "" Indian Airlines "" at that time, today there are four "" Indian Airlines, Alliance Air, Jet Airways, Air Sahara and Air Deccan. And two others "" Kingfisher Air and Royal Air "" have got the government's nod to start operations in the country. Take a look at the numbers.

In 1975, there were only 3.3 million air passengers in the country and 45 aircraft "" mainly old machines that had seen better days "" servicing the domestic market.

Today, there are about 175 aircraft in the country and 16 million passengers. The total revenues earned from the lone domestic carrier in 1975 was Rs 109.11 crore (compared to 2003-04's Rs 4,649.8 crore) and today the four carriers together generate Rs 21,441.4 crore.

Indian airports too have got a major facelift (okay, such as they are even now!). For example, from mere airstrips, most of the airports have migrated to handle movements of new generation carriers like Boeing and Airbus. Metro airports are now equipped with aerobridges and larger parking bays.

In the late 80s, Indian Airlines acquired 30 Airbus A 320s to expand its fleet. All seemed to be going well till one of these aircraft met with an accident in Bangalore. Because of the hue and cry about safety standards, the government decided to ground the entire fleet.

Overnight, there emerged a severe shortage of capacity in the Indian skies. The government responded by throwing open the sector to private companies "" they were allowed to operate what were called air taxi services. The government's decision saw a number of players including ModiLuft, East West Airlines, NEPC Damania, Jet Airways and Air Sahara starting services.

The stock market was booming in the early 1990s and some had no problems selling the dram to investors and raising large sums of money from the market. This brought a paradigm shift in the sector as some of them introduced new standards of services on their flights.

In a few short years, most of them folded up, except two "" Jet Airways and Air Sahara. And now, they are all set to fly abroad. The next wave of major growth came in 2003-04 with Air Deccan starting low-cost operations in the country, offering tickets for as low as Rs 500. Subsequent to the huge success of the low-cost model, about 12 new companies have jumped into the fray to start services.

Also, air travel, which was predominantly an urban phenomenon three decades ago, has spread fast to all corners of the country "" the share of smaller airports in the air traffic has grown rapidly compared to what it was 30 years back.

Besides, passenger traffic growth has also hit an all-time high. For example, in the last six months passenger traffic has grown about 27 per cent and the year is expected to end with about 25 per cent traffic growth in the domestic market to cross 20 million passengers.

The existing carriers and proposed new carriers are expected to pump in investments of up to $ 6.5 billion over the next 12 -18 months. In addition, about Rs 40, 000 crore will be put into making Indian airports world class.

Most of the operational airports in the country will be brought to international standards. Key airports in the country will be upgraded to handle large aircraft like Airbus A 380s, with high-speed taxiways and aerobridges.