ROUTES ASIA: Strategy Forum - China and India Take Centre Stage

Yesterday’s (March 27) Routes Asia Strategy Forum focused on the mega Asian markets of Asia, China and India, with panellists discussing how the aviation industry dynamics are changing in these two countries.

President of Mumbai International Airport, RK Jain, stated that he believes that air traffic in India will continue to grow at an average of at least 10 per cent in the coming years, with domestic traffic expected to rise to 150 million by 2020. Of course, infrastructure will need to be upgraded to handle this type of growth and he said India would need in the region of 40 significantly sized secondary airports. Meanwhile, Mumbai is already planning construction of a second airport as the current facility will reach maximum capacity by 2014 or 2015.

On the Indian market, Douglas Abbey, Marketing Airline Market from Brazilian manufacturer Embraer, said the manufacturer is speaking with “every Indian airline as 47% of all departures in the country support 80-100 passengers a day so we see a potential for the airlines to right size.” He said Embraer’s footprint in India would continue to grow in the future, while its presence in China would remain, with its factory in Harbin. “We also see Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam as huge growth markets,” he added.

Germal Singh Khera, General Manager Government & International Relations, Malaysia Airlines, warned that infrastructure and slot constraints in India and China could dampen growth at the two country’s main gateways and secondary gateways need to be served with the right size aircraft.

“We have seen potential in the secondary airports although it needs to make sense. With the Boeing 737-800 with 162 seats, secondary airports make economic sense. However, in the past, for example, we couldn’t make Chengdu work so we pulled out,” he said.

A full round-up from Routes Asia will appear in the next edition of Routes News.