Will India Ever Be a Global Aviation Hub?

Looking at its metropolises, including the mega cities of Delhi and Mumbai, India should already sport at least one major global aviation hub. Both cities have populations approaching 20 million inhabitants. Delhi is the country's political capital and arguably its second most important commercial hub. It also does not suffer from the severe space constraints afflicting Mumbai's Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport.
In fact, the masterplan for Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport envisages a capacity of 100 million passengers at the end of its development. The capital hosts embassies of most of the world's countries, international schools, good hotels and entertainment facilities, a rapidly growing infrastructure and, if one includes the satellite towns of Gurgaon and Noida, more head offices of multinational companies than any other city in India.
Until today, infrastructure has been a major handicap. Lack of efficient connectivity between the domestic and international terminals made transfers from domestic to international flights (and vice versa) an unpredictable nightmare for passengers and airlines. With the airport's development and the construction of an integrated domestic/international terminal this problem will be resolved by the middle of next year.
However, their poor shape and the relatively small size of India's airlines compared with majors such as Emirates, Lufthansa or Singapore Airlines -- all with their already well-established hubs and route networks -- will make it difficult for any desi carrier to assert itself.
The merger of Air India and Indian Airlines was conceptually the right way forward. It was aimed at giving the state carrier the size and route network to effectively compete with its domestic and international challengers. Unfortunately, the marriage between the two airlines was never properly consummated and hardly any of its envisaged synergies have materialized.
So what should India's aviation industry do to extricate itself from this mess?
To begin with, the airlines will have to start addressing the problems that they themselves have caused. This process has already started with Jet and Kingfisher deferring orders for new aircraft, mothballing new deliveries or, where possible, leasing or selling them to foreign carriers.
In short, with the exception of some of the low cost operators, a significant amount of capacity has been taken out of the market.
10/08/09 Ansgar Sickert (Managing director of Fraport AG for India and South Asia)/Wall Street Journal, USA

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Categories: Indian Aviation- In General Aug 2009