IATA calls for 'India Inc.' approach to revive Indian aviation industry

26 Jul 2012 Evaluate

International Air Transportation Association’s (IATA) Director General and CEO, Tony Tyler has suggested a ‘India Inc.’ approach to address multi-faceted crisis in Indian aviation. The crippling issues of the sector are high operating costs, exorbitant taxes and insufficient infrastructure. He opined that the crisis can be resolved with coordinated public policies and aggregate plans by the government by keeping in view that Indian economy can be greatly complimented through a revenue generating sector like aviation.

While criticizing Airports Economic Regulatory Authority’s (AERA) move, which has increased airport charges by 346% at Delhi International Airport since May 2012, he pointed out that it will add over $400 million in operating costs for airlines providing connectivity to India through Delhi and will impact travel demand by 5-7%. He urged to expedite action in infrastructure upgrade by enhancing airline capacity in Mumbai, by building new airport.

He also pointed that the component of fuel cost in the total operational cost of Indian carriers is approximately 50 per cent, while the same is around 33 per cent in other markets. Though, the airlines cannot shift the entire escalating operational cost to the consumer in India, as these conditions will stifle demand. Hence he had asked the government to help the airlines to reduce the gap in the operational cost and operation revenue by reducing taxes and infrastructure costs.

Indian Aviation sector is supporting about 1.7 million jobs, 0.5% of GDP and 90% of international tourist arrivals.  India is a market of about 100 million passengers annually and has a projected potential of over 2 billion travelers. Albeit, Indian airline’s losses approached $2 billion for the year ended March 2012, after losing an estimated $3.5 billion over the three previous years.

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