Air Travel has made a vigorous come-back to India, it is as though people were just waiting with their bags packed for the air travel to resume back to normalcy, and as soon as the international routes were opened and restrictions were eased from 27th March 2022, tourists, bag packers, families, businessmen all made a mad dash for the airports. This raised an alarming question about the chaotic situation of India’s major airports as the traffic swells in years to come. Are India’s major metro airports fully equipped to handle the passenger traffic as years pass by?
Bulging passenger traffic.
The post-pandemic chaos answered this question for the authorities. Indian domestic air traffic which was at 3.9 million passengers per day fell to 1.16 million during the third wave under the Omicron variant of COVID-19. However, the numbers bounced back to 3.83 million as of now close to the pre-COVID number of 4.1 million passengers per day. The Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA), has expressed confidence that within the next year, India will surpass the number of pre-COVID of 4.1 million passengers and create a new historic record. Airbus has also predicted that India will hit the pre-Covid level in terms of passenger traffic by mid-2022, while the rest of the world will take close to 2023 end to reach pre-Covid numbers.
The number of international passengers which was close to 60 million in 2018-19 fell to almost 10 million after COVID restrictions. Now with the lifting of restrictions by 2024-25, India will witness 410 million flying passengers.
The Indira Gandhi International Airport, Delhi stands at number #16 on international charts with over 22 million passengers in 2021 alone. These numbers will only multiply going ahead.
Fleet requirement
India is looking at tremendous expansion in terms of domestic and international air travel. Expansion in the area of airlines, expansion in the area of airports. And therefore, fleet augmentation is also important. Airbus expects that India will need over 2,200 airplanes in the next two decades. India had a fleet of mere 400 aircraft in 2013-14 which rapidly bulged over to 710 in the last seven years with an addition of almost 310 aircraft. The MoCA is confident of adding at least 110 to 120 aircraft per year going ahead.
South Asia’s air travel sector is dominated by the Indian market, which accounts for about 90% of the region’s passenger traffic. India’s continued economic growth and its expanding middle class will fuel demand across South Asia for 2,400 new commercial jets valued at nearly USD 375 billion during the 20-year forecast period, according to Boeing
“We project robust demand for air travel in South Asia with carriers increasing services, and passengers feeling confident about travel to see family and friends and do business, as well as from air cargo,” said Dave Schulte, managing director, regional marketing, Boeing Commercial Airplanes. “Key elements that will promote continued growth in the region will be the competitive domestic market and opportunities in international routes, both backed by government policies to reduce airline costs and taxes,” added Schulte.
Salil Gupte, president, Boeing India, said, “India continues to develop as one of the world’s largest civil aviation markets as it ramps up its capabilities and capacity in infrastructure and services. At Boeing, we are committed to supporting this growth through our Make in India supplier partnerships, next-generation products, solutions, technologies, and services, to advance the future of commercial aviation“.
Even Airbus predicts that the Indian aviation market will grow faster than the global market. According to Airbus, the Indian aviation market will grow at 6.2 percent over the next 20 years. It similarly expects the global aviation market to grow by 3.9 percent.
Before Covid-19 hit the business of aviation, the Indian market was growing consistently at double digits with traffic more than doubling from around 61 million in 2013-14 to around 137 million in 2019-20, registering a growth of over 14 percent per annum.
“The 6.2 percent growth will largely be pushed by domestic traffic and nearby countries, the widebody fleet in India has remained almost stagnant. However, we believe that the next phase of growth will come from widebodies,” said Airbus India President Remi Maillard.
Even the ministry is pushing the Indian operators for adding more widebody planes to their fleet and increase international destinations as foreign carriers dominate international traffic and the country sees little investment in long-haul aircraft.
About 60 foreign airlines from 40 countries have been approved to operate 1,783 weekly international flights from India. Indian airlines have been allowed to operate up to 1,466 weekly international departures during the summer
Investments in Airports
Looking at the above figures, it is evident that the expanding domestic aviation market in India would require robust infrastructure. The MoCA, therefore, plans to build around 220 new airports in a span of the next 3 years. Through the UDAN initiative, the Indian government intends to build infrastructure and a culture of air travel for people in tier 2 and 3 cities by making flying cheaper and more accessible.
India’s Minister of Civil Aviation, Mr. Jyotiraditya Scindia said, “Earlier only big cities had airports. Today that has changed completely. This is the reason why the civil aviation industry has become a key element of India’s economy. The amount of employment generated in the industry is massive.“
India’s Ministry of Civil Aviation is all set to invest Rs 1 lakh crore in green and brownfield airports in the country in the next 2-3 years by both AAI and the private sector. Apart from this, to increase the profitability of the Airport Authority of India, the government will move to lease out certain airports to private entities.
Air Traffic Management & Airport Modernization
Airports Authority of India (AAI) has agreed with Defence PSU Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) for the joint indigenous development of systems for air traffic management and surface movement of aircraft at airports in the country which were being imported till now. The agreement was signed by AAI’s B K Sarkar and BEL’s M V Raja Sekhar.
Riding on the wave of the Singapore Innovation Centre, the Bengaluru International Airport and Amazon Web Services (AWS) will develop a Joint Innovation Centre (JIC) at the airport that will drive the development and adoption of digital solutions in aviation. The first of its kind center in the country will drive innovation and the latest technology all the while enhancing the passenger experience. For this, the center will use a combination of technologies, including cloud computing, blockchain, internet of things (IoT), analytics, machine learning (ML), artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, and augmented and virtual reality (AR/ VR).
The Indian government is actively promoting the use of green energy at domestic and international airports in the country to make them more sustainable. It is also engaging with private airport operators and the Airports Authority of India (AAI) to install green energy-generation equipment to fulfil all their energy requirements via renewable sources. a total of 55 airports in various Indian states and Union Territories have dedicated solar plants installed. in 2015, Cochin International Airport in the southern state of Kerala became the first in the world to use solar energy for all its energy needs raising praises from the UN. It still holds the title of the world’s first solar-powered, power-positive airport.
The Hyderabad Rajiv Gandhi international airport will get a kind, state-of-art 264 meters, and 368-meter ramp tunnel built below the runway, and this new move will save time for the passengers, and food caterers, and vehicles and save the fuel consumption of the vehicles passing by. The main objective behind the move is to lessen the traffic and increase the passenger handling capacity to 3.4 crores.
Apart from the above Boeing has worked closely with the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), the airlines operating in India, airport operators, and other airspace stakeholders to develop a comprehensive 10-year roadmap for the Centre-run Airports Authority of India (AAI). This will help to improve airspace utilization and maintain safe and efficient aircraft operations.
Looking at the above developments, the time is just right and ripe to invest in the Indian aviation sector.
