Indian Aviation Sector Set For A Boom

New Delhi/Mumbai: The trails of mega-mergers, tailwinds of expanding fleets, flights and airports will dot the fast-growing Indian aviation firmament in 2025, though the dark clouds of supply chain woes will persist longer. Also, new airline takeoffs, the future trajectory of revised norms to tackle pilot fatigue and efforts to reduce carbon emissions will be on the radar. And in 2024, two airlines flew into the sunset, one airline is on a liquidation taxiway, aircraft orders climbed, single-day domestic air passenger traffic soared past record 5 lakh at least twice, and airfare movements continued to raise concerns. Not to leave out 999 hoax bomb calls received by airlines till November 14 this year.

The aviation sector had its share of accidents in the form of a few trainer aircraft crashes and a roof collapse incident at Terminal 1 of the Delhi airport that killed one person. For the “fascinating” Indian market, where the domestic air traffic is projected to jump to 164-170 million this fiscal ending March 2025, the larger long-term focus will be on increasing wide-body aircraft, providing more direct overseas flight connectivity and making the country a global aviation hub.

In the words of Akasa Air’s chief Vinay Dube, prospects are exceptional for the Indian aviation market, and IATA chief Willie Walsh is of the view that there is a massive opportunity for Indian airlines. The fleet of Indian carriers is more than 800 planes, including over 60 wide-body aircraft, and there are 157 airports. In a landmark development on November 12, Air India completed the Vistara merger to create an integrated airline, partly owned by Singapore Airlines, which will be flying over 1,20,000 passengers daily and connecting more than 90 destinations.

The completion of the much-awaited amalgamation announced back in November 2022, came within six weeks of the integration of Air India Express and AIX Connect (formerly AirAsia India). The two mergers have created a full-service carrier and a low-cost carrier of scale for the Tata Group, which is seeking to establish a “world-class global aviation company with an Indian heart”. With the mergers, two flight codes have bid adieu to the Indian skies - Vistara’s ‘UK’ and AIX Connect’s ‘I5’.

Putting an end to speculations about the future of the iconic ‘Maharaja’, once synonymous with Air India, Tata Group has chosen to rename Air India’s flying returns programme as ‘Maharaja Club’.