A third US-India Aviation Summit was held recently in Washington, DC. Many speakers cited forecasts of continued growth in civil air traffic and expected demand for many hundreds of new aircraft worth tens of billions of dollars. Also recognised are the serious restraints on India's aviation infrastructure. There are not enough airports and not enough carriers to service growing demand for air travel to non-metro, tier II and tier III cities.
Today there is neither a coherent nor a realistic national programme to tackle these multi-billion-dollar issues. Yet there is so much at stake. Viewing government pronouncements, many airplane initiatives have been touted. Few have progressed. In this field, one prospect shines with opportunity.
In July 2012, the Prime Minister's Office announced a commitment of $2 billion for the development of a new regional transport aircraft (RTA), to be designed and built in India. It would carry 70-90 passengers. If the RTA proceeds as a jet aircraft, it will find itself squarely in a very crowded market in which competition is presented by Bombardier, Embraer, Comac, Mitsubishi and Sukhoi. For India's specific needs, it has dubious utility, since a jet is most unlikely to be capable of operation from short runways as needed to work routes to India's under-served cities.
10/11/13 Robert S Metzger/Economic Times
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Today there is neither a coherent nor a realistic national programme to tackle these multi-billion-dollar issues. Yet there is so much at stake. Viewing government pronouncements, many airplane initiatives have been touted. Few have progressed. In this field, one prospect shines with opportunity.
In July 2012, the Prime Minister's Office announced a commitment of $2 billion for the development of a new regional transport aircraft (RTA), to be designed and built in India. It would carry 70-90 passengers. If the RTA proceeds as a jet aircraft, it will find itself squarely in a very crowded market in which competition is presented by Bombardier, Embraer, Comac, Mitsubishi and Sukhoi. For India's specific needs, it has dubious utility, since a jet is most unlikely to be capable of operation from short runways as needed to work routes to India's under-served cities.
10/11/13 Robert S Metzger/Economic Times
