Airlines to bet on flying to unserved smaller cities to tap bigger opportunity
Hyderabad: The air connectivity to smaller cities in the country through no-frills airlines and airports would be the focus of the fourth edition of India Aviation 2014, said a senior official from the Union civil aviation ministry. The show begins on March 12.
“The theme of this show will be looking beyond metros such as Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Benga-luru and Hyderabad. There are several smaller cities which have airports, but no air connectivity,” Mr G. Asok Kumar, joint secretary of civil aviation, said on Monday, while announcing the schedule of the event.
The second phase of growth in Indian aviation is expected to come from tier-2 and tier-3 cities.
“The idea is to expand and develop no-frills and low cost airports to meet the demand for air travel. The non-metro airpo-rts presently account for only about 30 per cent of the total air traffic, which is expected to rise to 45 per cent in the next few years,” Mr Kumar explained.
By 2020, the Indian aviation market, which is the ninth largest in the world, is expected to become the third largest, only after the United States and China.
According to Ficci, the co-organiser of India Aviation 2014, airlines are looking for new market opportunities, as metro routes have become highly competitive.
Mr Kumar said that the central government is planning to build nearly 200 low-cost airports in the next 20 years to expand connectivity to smaller cities.
Giving a general idea of low-cost airport, Mr Kumar said these airports would typically be like railway stations, without all comforts that airports have been identified with. “These airports, for example, may not have airconditioned enclosures and small runways, which are just enough for the landing of small aircraft,” the official explained.
The show would also try to explore the opportunity to make India as a hub for the MRO industry.
The maintenance, repair, and operations (MRO) industry is going to triple in size from Rs 2,250 crore in 2010 to Rs 7,000 crore by 2020.
Hyderabad already has an MRO facility in Hyderabad at Rajiv Gandhi International Airport, which was set up by MAS-GMR Aero-space Engineering Company, a JV between GHIAL and Malaysian Aerospace Engineering.
