Spotlight on ‘India’ - the fastest-growing aviation market

The MoCA predicts the passenger numbers in Indian aviation will cross the 400-million-mark in the next four years.
The current scenario in the Indian civil aviation industry is like peeping into a box of chocolates, you never know what you might find! Full of optimism, hope, positive investments, and booming post-pandemic passenger traffic. The rapidly changing dynamics, like Air India's privatization, the relaunch of Jet Airways, and newer carriers like Akasa Air venturing into Indian skies, have made the airline market more competitive than ever. To add to the rosy picture, the government has come up with schemes to develop the civil aviation infrastructure, with plans for over 200 airports in the next two years under the (Ude Desh Ka Aam Aadmi) UDAN scheme, connecting nooks and corners of the country under the (Regional Connectivity Scheme) RCS creating thousands of jobs in civil aviation across the country.

The above factors effectively added to the juggling of flight schedules, fleet modernization, the induction of fuel-efficient and sustainable aircraft, and the boom in air charter services, with more developing opportunities to deploy additional fleets with available slots. The government’s decision to separate the civil and defence air corridors opened additional routes for the airlines, leading to India becoming one of the fastest-developing civil aviation markets in the world. However, the geopolitical scenario, Ukraine-Russia conflict, soaring prices of ATF, and a depreciating rupee is causing the operators to struggle for profits despite a surge in travel demands.