Indian Aviation Growth Pains

The Center for Asia Pacific Aviation (Capa), an aviation consultancy, has had some harshly realistic words to say about the declining standards in Indian airline aviation. Capa sees the Indian domestic sector growing at a rate of 25 to 30 percent a year for the next three years and international traffic growth over the same period of around 15 percent. Despite these predictions and projections, the Indian government has been slow to address the crumbling infrastructure of airports, ATC, aging airplanes and a shortage of qualified personnel. The modernisation plan is based upon a US$9bn investment by 2010, however planning is vague and any changes will likely lag the growth spurt - with increasingly dramatic consequences. The incredibly crowded airspace and shortage of flight-crews has led to an influx of "poor English" speaking expatriate flight-crews and a naturally consequent uptick in near collisions within controlled airspace. Capa underlines its findings and opinions by pointing out that: "In the 12 months to March 31, 2006, Indian airlines carried 25.5m domestic passengers (up 27.9 percent year-on-year) and 22.4m international passengers (up 15.1 percent). Between April and September 2006, however, amid a flurry of new entrants to the sector, domestic traffic growth accelerated to more than 45 percent."  Related Story