Prashant Sukul, joint secretary of India's Ministry of Civil Aviation shares his thoughts on the state of India's airline industry.
Why is air travel such a vital sector for India?
For a county of this size air travel is essential. Between 16-17 million people a day travel on the railways and as these people become more affluent the demand for air travel will only grow. It is therefore important that demand is catered for now through infrastructure upgrades.
What effect has the LCC phenomenon had on India?
Air travel was previously considered very exclusive but today the middle class is growing and they want to fly. The middle class now makes up about 30% of the population and the idea is to make air travel more accessible to all Indians. Low-cost carriers have definitely captured a fair amount of this new market and IndiGo now even has a similar domestic marketshare as Air India.
What are currently the Ministry of Civil Aviation's main projects?
We are focused on the modernisation of India's airports, particularly at Mumbai and Delhi, as well as Calcutta and Hyderabad, and the expansion of Bangalore. There are 20 modernisation programmes going on, so it is a large-scale programme and covers new passenger facilities, as well as air navigation and ATC upgrades and modernisations.
Plus, passenger traffic has more than doubled in recent years. Between 2003 and 2008 India saw passenger growth of around 11%-12% per year. Then we saw a sharp decline due to high oil prices, followed by the recession. We are now back to about 10% growth and we expect double-digit growth this year and in the coming years.
What is the biggest challenge facing India's airline industry?
The country's taxation policies, particularly the fuel taxes that have been imposed. Capacity is also a problem and we need to make our airports profitable so that we can better respond to capacity challenges.
What are you hoping to achieve at World Routes?
We will be marketing the Indian gateways and their operators and demonstrating their ability to carry out large-scale airport work. We also want to market India to the airlines, as we would be delighted to see more direct flights into India. India is an excellent commercial proposition - as all the airlines operating into India will tell you.
- Hear Prashant Sukul speaking at TAS on Sunday September 19.
- For a full feature on India's airport and tourism projects, turn to page 40 in the bumper event edition of Routes News or read it online: www.routes-news.com
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