Aviation Industry In India-touching Higher Horizons

It all started in the year 1912. The first flight was from Karachi from Delhi. This flight was run by the Indian State Air Services in partnership with Imperial Airways, which were based in the U.K.

The two main airlines - Indian Airline Corporation (IAC) and Air India were set up after India gained independence. Before they were set up, the government nationalized nine airline companies, whose assets were passed on to these two corporations for their proper running.

Indian Airlines and Air India, had monopoly over airline business for almost four decades. During past years, taking a flight journey was regarded as the benefit which only a few could afford and the number of flights that operated then was nothing compared to what the scenario is now, in the aviation sector. Though Vayudoot, was set up as a means to make available flights between smaller cities, it was amalgamated with IAC in 1994.

After liberalization took place, the aviation industry saw a sea change and a number of privately owned full service airlines and low cost carriers came up in the aviation sector. The coming in of more companies into the industry was taken forward due to other factors such as:

Building up of new airports, with contemporary facilities and reorganization of the existing airports.
Augmentation in services provided by state-owned carriers.
Up gradation of the services given by the maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) industry in India.
The opening up of new international routes by the Indian government.

The past three years since 2004, have been tremendously good for the aviation industry, as air traffic has increased by leaps and bounds. In the year 2006, during the April to September quarter, the number of domestic and international passenger saw an enhancement of 15.8 per cent and 44.6 per cent, respectively. It is projected that by the year 2020 about 100 million passengers, (about 60 million being domestic passengers) will increase. An increase in cargo of about 3.4 million tones per annum is also projected

These expectations are further reinforced by the outcome of the latest Aero India show that took place in Bangalore. 500 airline companies took part in it, and these include 275 foreign ones, 45 foreign delegations and 35 Air Force. What was initially an exhibition put forth by the defense sector was now characterized by high-profile business deals in aviation sector. All this evidently shows that India is going to out do other Asian countries in the aviation sector as more and more airlines compete to run across Indian skies.