Sector structure/Market size

The Indian aviation industry is one of the fastest growing aviation industries in the world. The government's open sky policy has led to many overseas players entering the market and the industry has been growing both in terms of players and number of aircrafts. Today, private airlines account for around 75 per cent share of the domestic aviation market.

India is the 9th largest aviation market in the world. According to the Ministry of Civil Aviation, around 29.8 million passengers traveled to/from India during 2008, an increase of 30 per cent on previous year. It is predicted that international passengers will grow upto 50 million by 2015. Further, due to enhanced opportunities and international connectivity, 69 foreign airlines from 49 countries are flying into India.

Growth

The Indian Civil Aviation market grew at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 18 per cent, and was worth US$ 5.6 billion in 2008. Airlines recorded a double-digit growth in air traffic in August 2009, according to data released by the industry regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).

Domestic airlines flew 3.67 million passengers in August 2009, as against 2.92 million in the corresponding period last year—an increase of 26 per cent.

The Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation (CAPA) forecasted that domestic traffic will increase by 25 per cent to 30 per cent till 2010 and international traffic growth by 15 per cent, taking the total market to more than 100 million passengers by 2010.

By 2020, Indian airports are expected to handle more than 100 million passengers including 60 million domestic passengers and around 3.4 million tonnes of cargo per annum.

Moreover, significant measures to propel growth in the civil aviation sector are on the anvil. The government plans to invest US$ 9 billion to modernise existing airports by 2010. The government is also planning to develop around 300 unused airstrips.

India ranks fourth after US, China and Japan in terms of domestic passengers volume. The number of domestic flights grew by 69 per cent from 2005 to 2008. The domestic aviation sector is expected to grow at a rate of 9-10 per cent to reach a level of 150-180 million passengers by 2020.

The industry witnessed an annual growth of 12.8 per cent during the last 5 years in the international cargo handled at all Indian airports. The airports handled a total of 1020.9 thousand metric tones of international cargo in 2006-07.

Further, there has been an increase in tourist charter flights to India in 2008 with around 686 flights bringing 150,000 tourists. Also, there has been an increase in non-scheduled operator permits – 99 in 2008 as against 66 in 2007.

Low cost services

Major full-service carriers have converted around half their capacity into low-cost services, which has resulted in bringing down the average fares of airlines as a whole by about 30 per cent and thereby increasing demand from the domestic passenger market.

Kingfisher Airlines and Jet Airways have converted around half their capacity into low-cost services. While, government carrier Air India plans to launch a low-cost model in the domestic skies. It already has a low-cost airline called Air India Express which operates on international routes.

Jet Airways has also increased the number of low-cost seats in the system by around 50 per cent.

Low cost carriers (LCCs) such as Indigo and SpiceJet have increased the total number of seats by 40 per cent and 53 per cent, respectively, in the past year.

SpiceJet is also working on a plan to start international operations next year, making it the third private Indian carrier after Jet Airways and Kingfisher to fly overseas.