Aviation - Brief Overview
India is poised to be among the top five aviation nations in the world in the next 10 years. Currently, India is the 9th largest civil aviation market, highlighted Ms Pratibha Patel, President of India, at the International Civil Aviation Negotiation (ICAN) Conference. "Recent estimates suggest that domestic air traffic will touch 160-180 million passengers a year, in the next 10 years and the international traffic will exceed 80 million passengers a year," said Ms Patil.
The Indian Aviation Industry is exploring opportunities to improve connectivity and is also looking at enhancing the number of Indian carriers to various countries."One of the key achievements of India in the last decade has been to set-up an independent regulator for economic regulation of airports," added Ms Patil.
Aviation - Market Size
In the last decade, domestic air traffic has quadrupled from 13 million to 52 million and international traffic more than tripled to 38 million. A similar trend is observed in the cargo sector, Ms Patil added. The rapidly expanding aviation sector handles 2.5 billion passengers across the world in a year; moves 45 million tonnes of cargo through 920 airlines, using 4,200 airports and deploys 27,000 aircraft. Today, 87 foreign airlines fly to and from India and five Indian carriers fly to and from 40 countries.
Passengers carried by domestic airlines during Jan-Nov 2011 were 55.03 million as against 46.81 million during the corresponding period of previous year thereby registering a growth of 17.6 per cent, according to data released by Directorate General Civil Aviation (DGCA).
The air transport (including air freight) in India has attracted foreign direct investment (FDI) worth US$ 423.31 million from April 2000 to September 2011, according to the data provided by Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP).
Private carriers are anticipated to post a combined profit of US$ 350–US$ 400 million for the financial year ending March 31, 2012, as per a report titled '2011-12 Aviation Industry Outlook' by Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation (CAPA) India. CAPA India expects domestic traffic growth of 17-18 per cent, possibly as high as 20 per cent. International passenger numbers, which grew by about 10 per cent last year, are expected to increase towards the upper end of a 10-12 per cent range over the next 12 months.
Aviation - Market Players
- GVK Power & Infrastructure Ltd (GVK PIL) has acquired 108 million equity shares constituting 13.5 per cent in Mumbai International Airport Ltd (MIAL) from its Mauritius partner Bid Services Division for Rs 1,130 crore (US$ 215.28 million)
- US-based electrical components company Eaton Corporation foresees plenty of opportunities for itself in India's unfolding civil and military aerospace story. "India is expected to emerge as one of the largest aviation markets in the world," as per Joe-Tao Zhou, APAC President, Aerospace Group, Eaton Corporation
- GMR Infrastructure-led Delhi International Airport Ltd (DIAL) is set to approach the Government to expand the permitted land use for 250 acres. The company wants to lease out the land for non-airport related activities
- SpiceJet has acquired a new fleet of Q400 aircraft from Bombardier and it will use these aircrafts in its new regional service. Under the deal, SpiceJet also has the option of ordering 15 more Q400 NextGen aircraft
Aerospace on a High
- Airline operator Emirates plans to add new destinations in the US and Russia from Hyderabad via Dubai in the next few months. "Our market estimates are that there are about 1,500 passengers flying to Dubai and Seattle each every month from Hyderabad," according to K P Venugopal, Emirates Sales Manager, Andhra Pradesh
- GippsAERO, the aircraft manufacturing division of Mahindra Aerospace, has signed an agreement with Rolls Royce to partner on engine technology for a new aircraft
- Air India will take delivery of its first Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft by the end of 2011, according to Dr Dinesh Keskar, President, Boeing India. Further, Boeing predicts that India will require 1,320 new aircrafts valued at US$ 150 billion over the next 20 years
- Air India Express has started operating direct flights from Muscat to three new destinations in Kerala, and have increase the number of flights from the Gulf to the country from October 31, 2011
Aviation - Recent Developments
- The ground-breaking ceremony of the new terminal at the Ibrahim Nasir International Airport was held on December 19, 2011. The project is being undertaken by a consortium led by GMR Group. Malaysian Airport is GMR's partner for the project which will be completed by 2014. The project is estimated to cost US$ 510 million
- The Turkish Airlines plans to expand its operations in India by 2012. "India is a very important market for us and we need to fly to at least five cities there," according to Temel Kotil, CEO, Turkish Airlines
- CAPA expects India's carriers to place orders for up to 200 new aircraft this year, with a list price of US$ 11 - US$ 12billion. This will include about 125-150 narrow bodies, 30-50 regional aircraft and 10-15 wide bodies
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