Back in 2005 when India’s first budget airlines were taking wing, this was a common sight at airports: Swarms of local travellers clicking their way to the first airplane journey of their lives, or thrifty Indian families unpacking home-cooked food onboard in scenes that one might see on a train journey in India. The early offerings from low cost, no-frills airlines revolutionised air travel, so much so that if one got lucky online, tickets could even be cheaper than the to-and-fro airport taxi fare.
Good times they were, until three years back. Thereafter, high fuel costs, taxes and a general mismanagement of air routes quickly pushed up fares. To be sure, economic prosperity has boosted air travel in India at a fast clip. Yet, with average airline tickets now costing way above erstwhile full-service fares, the budget traveller in India has been priced out of the skies.
But can this change? Is the Indian airline industry capable of transforming itself from serving a tiny fraction of the 1.2 billion population to becoming the mode of choice for long-distance travel for the entire country? Simply put, can more train-travelling Indians fly?
The answer is yes, and they must because a well-established air transport industry plays a role in facilitating growth in a nation’s standard of living and economic activity.
26/04/14 Lalit Bhasin/Business Line
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Good times they were, until three years back. Thereafter, high fuel costs, taxes and a general mismanagement of air routes quickly pushed up fares. To be sure, economic prosperity has boosted air travel in India at a fast clip. Yet, with average airline tickets now costing way above erstwhile full-service fares, the budget traveller in India has been priced out of the skies.
But can this change? Is the Indian airline industry capable of transforming itself from serving a tiny fraction of the 1.2 billion population to becoming the mode of choice for long-distance travel for the entire country? Simply put, can more train-travelling Indians fly?
The answer is yes, and they must because a well-established air transport industry plays a role in facilitating growth in a nation’s standard of living and economic activity.
26/04/14 Lalit Bhasin/Business Line
