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Low-cost is the way to go for India's booming airline industry. But is airport infrastructure ready for the coming flood? By Kushan Mitra
To be honest, until a few months ago flying was the exclusive privilege of the moneyed. The average Delhi-Mumbai return ticket was the equivalent of a month's salary for middle-class India. Sure, a few years ago, some airlines introduced APEX fares, but the seats were few and far between. The Indian skies were carved up between essentially three 'full-service' carriers - government owned Indian Airlines along with Jet and Sahara. Now, on the other hand, with perfect planning, you can get a Delhi-Mumbai ticket for as little as Re 1 plus taxes (which add up to Rs 221). More realistically, you can fly between Delhi and Mumbai and back for under Rs 5,000, which is less than the price of a one-way ticket on a 'full-service' carrier. And this is all thanks to the entry of 'low-cost' carriers, pioneered n India by Captain G.R. Gopinath of Air Deccan. In the last month, two more carriers have started flights - Kingfisher and SpiceJet. And if news reports are to be believed, a few more carriers will take off very soon. The problem here, however, is not of low fares but of the infrastructure itself. What has allowed low-cost carriers to succeed in the US and Europe are lots of secondary airports and a seamless Air Traffic Control (ATC) system. In India, the former is not around, and to make matters worse, even the major airports of this country cannot cope with the demands made on them. Delhi and Mumbai between them account for 60 per cent of the country's domestic air traffic. However, both airports do not even have enough parking bays for planes (a situation that is being rectified) let alone enough runaway movements during the morning and evening rush hours. The problem apparently is India's antiquated ATC system, which cannot allow for reduced spacing between planes, confining runway movements to only 25 an hour. And none of India's major airports have a fully functional second runway (Delhi and Mumbai do, but these runaways are rarely used). The Civil Aviation ministry believes a quick fix exists in the form of a software upgrade, but nothing has happened as yet, and more airlines still want to take root. Planes are sitting on the ground and circling the air for longer, burning away profits along with fuel. Matters are no better in the international sectors. The government has opened up international routes to more carriers, both Indian and international. Yet, almost every international terminal in India is in shambles. Some, like Bangalore, are not even large enough to handle the traffic of two 747 jets at the same time. And Airbus has gifted the A380 to the world, which will cram in even more passengers. But then again, Bangalore and Hyderabad are getting new airports. The Mumbai and Delhi airport privatisation process is still held up, but in the meantime matters regarding high-speed taxiways and second runaways (for Delhi) are moving ahead. But things are moving forward, slowly but surely, for India's smaller airports as the government plans to modify 30 smaller airports. And the ATC system is expected to get an overhaul soon also. Well, things better move ahead and at speed too, because all the good work that Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel has done might be undone by the lack of infrastructure.
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