Indian civil aviation needs US $30 billion investment: Secretary Zaidi
The exponential growth of the Indian civil aviation sector needs investments worth over US $30 billion in the next 15 years and the civil aviation ministry has worked out a road-map to facilitate this, announced the Secretary of Civil Aviation, Dr. Nasim Zaidi.
Inaugurating the "Centenary conference of Indian Civil Aviation", organized by Assocham (the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry), Dr. Zaidi outlined three key-initiatives that the ministry was taking during the year creation of a National registry of airports; formation of a civil aviation authority; independent investigation board among other developmental initiatives.
The passenger growth has been phenomenal at 23 per cent in 2010-11, up from 19 per cent the previous period. Only two per cent and 0.5 per cent Indians fly domestic and international respectively, though we are 'way behind', there is huge potential. The growth of the sector is critically dependant on infrastructure, safety, liberalization, human resources and environment.
The Director General of Association of Asia Pacific Airlines (AAPA), Andrew Herdman, said while the Asia-Pacific region was doing well commercially in the aviation sector, on the regulatory front the dominance of the US and Europe continued. Aviation as a business faces significant regulatory constraints and there was need to revisit the issues for global standardization.
The outlook for the sector was quite dampening as crude oil prices were over $120 a barrel. Oil price volatility impacts the aviation sector, more so in India due to the high taxation regime.
Focused sessions
The conference deliberated on three issues 'Airports: constraints and growth drivers'; 'Airlines industry: challenges and opportunities'; and 'Training and capacity building' with a host of experts giving their perspectives.
The refrain of the top airline executives was on the perception of those in the bureaucracy and also the people at large that the airline business was a highly profitable one. Top airline honchos Saroj K. Datta, Executive Director of Jet Airways; Aditya Ghosh, President, IndiGo; Sanjay Aggarwal CEO of Kingfisher Airlines; Kaushik Khona, CEO, GoAir; Tom Wright, General Manager (India), Cathay Pacific Airways and Capt. Pankaj Chopra, Vice President (Flight Safety), Religare Voyages, were on the same page on "how everyone associated with the aviation industry makes money, except the airlines". The profit-margins are wafer-thin.
India being a highly under-serviced market, they were optimistic about the opportunities, but the challenges were many infrastructural issues; high taxation; undue regulation; human resource requirements etc. Chuck Pulakhandam, Regional Sales Director, Embraer, made a perfect pitch for 50-120 seat aircraft for the Indian market which is looking at connecting II and III tier cities.
In the session on 'Airports: Constraints and growth drivers', the panelists included Vidya Basarkod, CEO, Reliance Airport Developers; I.P Rao, CEO, Delhi International Airport Limited GMR; Suresh Goyal, Managing Director, Macquarie SBI Capital Infrastructure; Bhaskar Bodapati, Director (Finance), GVK-BIAL; Sanjay Varkey, CEO, Shell MRPL Aviation Fuels and Ansgar Sickert. In the light of the growth potential, the consensus was that there was need for a stable regulatory environment and initiatives to drive growth. "Airport financing is not a constraint the challenges are with the regulations."
The session on 'Training and capacity building", which was chaired by Air Marshal V.K.Verma (Retd.), Director, Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Urad Akademi, included Air Marshal (Retd) B.K.Pandey, Editor of SP's AirBuz; Ajay Bhatnagar, Inspector General, Central Industrial Security Force. The salient point was immediate standardization of training procedures.
A 'white paper' on Indian Civil Aviation: Challenges and Opportunities, brought out by Assocham and KPMG, was released by Dr. Zaidi.
Awards
On the occasion, H.S.Khola, former Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) presented awards :
- Best inflight service and safety : Kingfisher Airlines
- Best overall performance : IndiGo
- Best Indian global carrier : Jet Airways
- Best managed airport : Indira Gandhi International Airport
- Best training Institute : Frankfinn
- Best cargo airline : Deccan 360
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