India's civil aviation minister has
declared the start of an "air travel revolution".
But as with any revolution, there is a cost to
pay.
Praful Patel made the remark as he
gave international status to the airport in the
Western Indian city of Nagpur. The minister has
reason to be optimistic as domestic air traffic
for the first half of this fiscal year grew by
20.8%, a growth analysts ranked as second only to
China. Still, some believe that is not enough,
while others worry about the associated growing
pains.
"The expansion of air transport in
India is among the fastest in the world," Giovanni
Bisignani, director general and chief executive
officer of International Air
Transport Association (IATA), told the
Confederation of Indian Industry in New Delhi in
October.
"But I believe India could be
doing even better. Generally air transport grows
at twice GDP [gross domestic product]. With Indian
GDP expected to expand at 7.2% for 2005-2009, we
would expect growth in the 15% range."
Globally, airlines generated $1.3 trillion
in economic activity, but had US$36 billion in
losses the past five years, primarily due to
increasing oil prices and other reasons such as
fear of terrorist strikes.
In India, the
industry, which has seen the arrival of more than
a dozen low-budget airlines, is suffering serious
growth problems, from inadequate infrastructure to
struggles to meet surging demand. Delays, safety,
customer satisfaction and operational headaches
worry the industry. India's booming aviation
business needs more airports, pilots, flight crew
and less-stressed air traffic controllers.
"Delays of anywhere up to an hour have
become par for the course in airports like Delhi
and Mumbai," the local daily Business Standard
noted. "Both these airports typically handle 25 to
28 flights an hour, compared to 40 per hour per
runway in most international airports."
Extra fuel for delayed landings and
take-offs in India may cost each air carrier more
than $131 million annually, according to
rediff.com, a leading Internet portal focussing on
India and the global Indian community.
Unhappy Indian airport users could face
worse times ahead. The IATA Global Airports
Monitor (now called AETRA) ranked overall
passenger satisfaction at Delhi and Mumbai well
below the Asia and global averages. The 2004 AETRA
report called Hong Kong International Airport the
"best airport worldwide", followed by Seoul's
Incheon and Singapore's Changi.
A flight
to Mumbai invariably comes with an unscheduled air
tour of the city for at least 20 minutes. A final
decision on contracts for restructuring and
modernizing Mumbai and Delhi airports was delayed
earlier this month though it had been suspected
the project would get the green light by the end
of November(Airport modernization takes
off Jul 13).
"Traffic at Indian
airports is booming and numbers are higher than
projections," D P Singh, general manager at the
Airport Authority of India (AAI), told the media.
The AAI manages 126 airports, including 11
international and 89 domestic airports. New
airports are popping up across India. The AAI is
working with the private sector as with leading
firms such as L&T Ramboll Consulting Engineers
on the Nagpur international airport.
"This
is the first time that AAI is giving out the
design, infrastructure execution of airports to a
private company," Sanjay Kumar Srivastava,
aviation projects consultant at L&T Ramboll
told Asia Times Online.
He sees India's
civil aviation boom opening huge opportunities for
firms such as his, particularly given the pressing
need for infrastructure supply to meet air traffic
demand, a gap he points out is "growing day by
day".
L&T Ramboll is also working on a
new international airport in Uttar Pradesh,
India's most-populated state, and drawing plans
for the new international airport in Bangalore.
"In Hyderabad, the state government has asked us
to study 22 airstrips, most of which are not
functioning at present," Srivastava said.
Analysts expect India to spend more than
$35 billion on aviation over the next two decades.
The Center for Asia Pacific Aviation (CAPA)
estimates India's domestic airlines would need 650
new aircraft by 2012, up from the current 210.
CAPA is a specialist consultancy group focused on
the aviation industry in the Asia-Pacific region,
providing advisory and information services to
airlines, airports, governments, regulatory
agencies and suppliers.
More pertinent is
how much of this spending will be on upgrading
over-stretched human resources. For instance, air
traffic controllers are overstressed and in
technical terms, "in mild distress", observed
Kapil Kaul, chief executive officer for CAPA.
Also, CAPA estimates India will need a
further 3,000 pilots. Domestic airlines, losing
pilots to international carriers, are being forced
to consider a 20% pay hike. An Indian airline
captain gets paid $10,000 to $12,000 monthly (an
outrageously large sum by Indian standards) while
a foreign pilot gets $14,000 to $15,000 per month.
India churns out only about 150 pilots every year
from its 22 training schools, which are also short
of trainers.
Taking advantage of the
demand are firms such as the Airhostess Training
Academy, with 15 branches in eight Indian cities
and with plans to open more to deal with the rush
of applicants paying about $3,177 for a two-year
course.
"There will a sharp rise in demand
for trained cabin crew not only for the domestic
airlines, but also for international carriers,"
said Sapna Gupta, chief consultant of the Air
Hostess Academy. " In the entire Asia-Pacific
region, the total human resource requirement in
the civil aviation industry will be to the tune of
94,705."
India is not "actually geared up
to lessen the gap between the demand and supply of
trained manpower", Gupta said. "A lot of
initiative still needs to be taken at the
government level. [The academy] is already
initiating dialogue with the government to provide
a formal recognition and issue guidelines for
institutes offering courses for the aviation
industry."
Meanwhile, aviation minister
Praful Patel knows the way the wind is blowing,
proposing a new aviation-training center for his
hometown of Gondia in Maharashtra.
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