Sometime towards the end of September, an airport was inaugurated at Jharsuguda in Odisha. Jharsuguda is an industrially developed district, rich in minerals and teeming with power plants. According to plan, local carrier Air Odisha was supposed to operate all flights from here. The airport was named after the 19th century tribal leader, Veer Surendra Sai. No less than Prime Minister Narendra Modi was present at the opening. In his speech, he pointed out that Odisha had only one major airport even after all these years since Independence, whereas a district in Gujarat such as Kutch had five airports. He offered more stats — only 450 aircraft operated in the country since Independence, while in the past one year steps had been taken to add close to 1,000 aircraft.
It is true, air travel in India is booming. At the end of March 2009, all Indian airports put together had handled 68 million passengers. This year, to date, Delhi alone has handled that much traffic. And according to the latest report of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation — the regulatory body for civil aviation under the ministry of civil aviation — between January and September this year, domestic airlines flew 10 crore passengers as against 85 lakh in the corresponding period last year. Simply put, a growth of 20.94 per cent, the highest in the world.
But while air passenger numbers are booming, the sector itself seems to be hurtling towards bust.
The real story of India’s civil aviation industry is in the footnotes, not the headlines.
A fortnight after the grand inauguration, the Veer Surendra Sai airport closed down. Reason: Air Odisha, reportedly owned by relatives of industrialist Gautam Adani, refused to operate.
Air Odisha, which is the most complained about airline for flight cancellations in the country today, cited technical reasons. But this is the unique thing about the Indian aviation industry — almost everybody related to it is making big bucks except the airlines.
Owing to rising aviation turbine fuel (ATF) prices, the depreciating rupee and competitive ticket pricing, not a single airline in India is earning more than it is spending. The losses run into thousands of crores of rupees.
It is not as if the big players are denying any of this. Recently, Jet Airways CEO Vinay Dube wrote a letter to the carrier’s privilege members in which he admitted Jet’s net loss of Rs 1,261 crore incurred during the July-September period.
25/11/18 V. Kumara Swamy/Telegraph
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It is true, air travel in India is booming. At the end of March 2009, all Indian airports put together had handled 68 million passengers. This year, to date, Delhi alone has handled that much traffic. And according to the latest report of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation — the regulatory body for civil aviation under the ministry of civil aviation — between January and September this year, domestic airlines flew 10 crore passengers as against 85 lakh in the corresponding period last year. Simply put, a growth of 20.94 per cent, the highest in the world.
But while air passenger numbers are booming, the sector itself seems to be hurtling towards bust.
The real story of India’s civil aviation industry is in the footnotes, not the headlines.
A fortnight after the grand inauguration, the Veer Surendra Sai airport closed down. Reason: Air Odisha, reportedly owned by relatives of industrialist Gautam Adani, refused to operate.
Air Odisha, which is the most complained about airline for flight cancellations in the country today, cited technical reasons. But this is the unique thing about the Indian aviation industry — almost everybody related to it is making big bucks except the airlines.
Owing to rising aviation turbine fuel (ATF) prices, the depreciating rupee and competitive ticket pricing, not a single airline in India is earning more than it is spending. The losses run into thousands of crores of rupees.
It is not as if the big players are denying any of this. Recently, Jet Airways CEO Vinay Dube wrote a letter to the carrier’s privilege members in which he admitted Jet’s net loss of Rs 1,261 crore incurred during the July-September period.
25/11/18 V. Kumara Swamy/Telegraph
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