India''s crowded skies saw the first wave of consolidation as some airlines merged and others gobbled up a rival to gain market share and cut losses during the year 2007 that was also marked by a rapid increase in air travellers, infrastructure hurdles and addition of new planes.Domestic passenger traffic soared by almost 40 per cent this year. This prompted nearly all the airlines to place orders for buying new aircraft, undeterred by the fact that they posted combined losses of about Rs 2,000 crore largely on account of rising fuel costs and payments of aircraft.
Indian carriers have inducted about 150 aircraft in the past two years, taking the total number of planes with them to more than 310. They will be adding close to 500 aircraft over the next few years to expand operations. The increase in the number of planes, coupled with more foreign flights, put immense pressure on the hard-pressed aviation infrastructure. This forced the Civil Aviation Ministry to start working on a policy to encourage private or merchant airports, besides expediting airport modernisation works in Delhi, Mumbai and other major cities.
The Airports Authority of India also started work on 35 non-metro airports, and called for bids for developing the city-side of these airports. Government will also set up an Airport Economic Regulatory Authority to deal with the emerging scenario of private airport operators. A major achievement this year was that no accident occurred, the best record in the past seven years. However, a number of ''air-miss'' incidents were registered, including one involving a special aircraft carrying UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi. But aviation authorities maintained that these were procedural failures and would never have caused an accident.
Indian carriers have inducted about 150 aircraft in the past two years, taking the total number of planes with them to more than 310. They will be adding close to 500 aircraft over the next few years to expand operations. The increase in the number of planes, coupled with more foreign flights, put immense pressure on the hard-pressed aviation infrastructure. This forced the Civil Aviation Ministry to start working on a policy to encourage private or merchant airports, besides expediting airport modernisation works in Delhi, Mumbai and other major cities.
The Airports Authority of India also started work on 35 non-metro airports, and called for bids for developing the city-side of these airports. Government will also set up an Airport Economic Regulatory Authority to deal with the emerging scenario of private airport operators. A major achievement this year was that no accident occurred, the best record in the past seven years. However, a number of ''air-miss'' incidents were registered, including one involving a special aircraft carrying UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi. But aviation authorities maintained that these were procedural failures and would never have caused an accident.
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