So within the next three years you are going to have many more people travelling by air than by second class AC and above on rail. The CAGR, the compounded annual growth rate for rail travel, is only 5.3%, the CAGR for air is 10.4%. We have 181 million passengers travelling by rail and 141 million people travelling by air. Today the fare rail travel beyond 6 to 8 hours on a second AC coach is 10% to 20% higher than the cost of flying by air. In the last seven years, democratisation of travel through air has happened. Ĭivil aviation traditionally has always been known to be an elitist form of travel. That is where we are going to get the greatest demand, greatest connectivity. By 2024-25 we will have a total of 220 heliports and airports together. We have gone from 74 airports to 136 and the journey does not stop here.
So 74 airports in 70 years and 62 airports in seven years. From 2014 till date under the prime ministership of Modiji, we have built 62 airports. In 70 years in India, we have built 74 airports from 1947 till 2014. I was not aware of this until I took over as civil aviation minister. The second is to really look at supply side factors where one looks at increasing the scope of airports. So one is to look at demand side factors. We have a heli seva portal, we have made sure that we have a helicopter accelerator cell within the ministry for promoting this last mile connectivity. Now that is a huge impetus for the hilly regions, northeast regions and therefore I have come out with a new helicopter policy which has really democratised helicopter travel for masses, wiping off parking charges, landing charges. We only have a fleet of 280 helicopters in India. For example, we have a very low per capita penetration rate of helicopters in India.
Then we also have to look at the last mile solution which is not only the Boeings and airbuses but regional aircraft, helicopters etc. The fact is we have airstrips now in small tier II cities like Darbhanga, Jharsuguda in Odisha - which post World War II had been wiped off the aviation map and today have a very healthy demand of over two lakh travellers per month - great connectivity all because of UDAN via VGF or viability gap funding. There are some amazing stories within that envelope. That has been made possible through UDAN. His mission and vision was ki hawai chappal wala bhi hawai jahaj se safar kare (Even those who can’t afford more than flip flops, should be able to fly). Which is why I have to look at greater accessibility through the UDAN programme which is the prime minister’s prerogative through Ude Desh Ka Aam Nagrik. A similar change is happening in civil aviation where through very high penetration levels and high capacity expansion you are actually seeing a high volume, low margin game play out. Today telecom has transformed itself into a high volume, low margin, low cost game. There was a time when we had none of these mobile phones in India nor analogue, nor digital and we initially had five main metros that went out on a bidding system and that was a very low volume, low margin, high cost game. On the demand side, I have to make sure that I look at access, inclusivity, affordability and that can only be done on the one hand through higher penetration and this sector is very akin to the revolution that we saw in the telecom sector in the 90s. Such events probably happen once in a century and the whole sector gets shut down. In legal parlance, they are called force majeure events. They are cataclysmic events which have the capacity to destroy industries. Have you learnt lessons from the previous two waves in trying to minimise disruptions and if so, what are some of these? How do you sustain demand, especially from passengers, when you always have the fear of a third wave looming somewhere in the background. There is the area of MRO, cargo, flying training organisations, ground handlers, regional airlines, helicopters, aircraft manufacturing and my mandate as civil aviation minister is not only to look into the growth of airlines and airports, but also across the board the whole ecosystem. Today, India is in the right position to ensure the flourishing of the aero ecosystem in India which comprises much more than airlines and airports. Like auto, there is an entire ecosystem here. What is your view on the secor?Įver since I have taken over, I have spent most of my time understanding the pain points of all the stakeholders within the industry - mainly airlines and airports.
The Air India privatisation has finally been done. Other than that, there have been many other issues with the sector even pre-Covid. Jyotiraditya Scindia, Minister of Civil Aviation in conversation with Rahul Shivshankar of Times Now at the Times Now Summit 2021.Īviation was one of the industries hit hard by the Covid pandemic.
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