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Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) Arun Mishra said a combination of steps, including the establishment of low cost airports with no parking charges across smaller cities, would be required to expand and sustain the aviation industry in India.
"The Indian aviation sector is not only facing turbulence in the skies but also on the ground," he said here while stating that the industry had lost Rs 9,800 crore last year besides sitting on an outstanding debt of Rs 18,000 crore.
The potential for growth in the aviation sector is very large in the country as a possible conversion of just 10 per cent of the 15 million people who travel by trains every day to air travel will offer manifold growth in the sector, according him. "China is fully dependent on domestic air travel. We also do not need international air travel to sustain the sector," he said.
However, higher cost of aviation turbine fuel, adverse impact of currency fluctuations as the industry is dollar dependent to the extent of 70 per cent, increased aircraft lease rentals, and high landing and parking costs are making the industry unviable, Mishra said at a meet organised by the World Travel and Tourism Council on Saturday.
Stating that the DGCA was willing to support the upgradation of 463 smaller airports available in the country as it was currently focusing on improving the connectivity, he said somehow they had to be made viable through policy support and other measures. Low cost airports that look a lot more like school gymnasiums with no frills, no air-conditioning and no parking charges would have to be developed to expand the connectivity, according to him.
Shorter runway size is the biggest hurdle in expanding the connectivity to smaller airports and this could be overcome by introducing smaller aircraft as airlines such as SpiceJet is already doing, according to the DGCA.
Kapil Kaul, chief executive officer of the Center for Asia Pacific Aviation, said the tourism industry would grow only if the aviation sector was made central to its growth strategy.
He said the cost structure had held the whole aviation industry hostage and issues like higher tax rates levied on aviation turbine fuel by states had only deteriorated the situation. The industry is facing a 25-30 per cent cost-to-revenue mismatch and this had to be rectified in the interests of the country's travel and tourism sector.
