Trails of mega mergers, expanding fleets, flights and tailwinds of airports will dot the fast-growing Indian aviation sky in 2025, though the dark cloud of supply chain issues will linger.
Also, the future path of revised standards to address new airline take-offs, pilot fatigue and efforts to reduce carbon emissions will be on the radar.
And in 2024, two airlines flew into the sunset, one airline is on a liquidation taxiway, aircraft orders climbed, a day’s domestic air passenger traffic increased at least twice to a record 5 million, and air freight traffic continued to raise concerns. Don’t ignore the 999 hoax bomb calls received from airlines until November 14 this year.
The aviation sector was involved in several trainer aircraft crashes and a roof collapse at Delhi Airport’s Terminal 1 that killed one person.
For the “attractive” Indian market, where domestic air traffic is forecast to reach 164-170 million in the fiscal year ending March 2025, a major long-term focus will be on increasing wide-body aircraft, connecting more direct overseas flights and providing Making the country a global aviation hub.
According to Vinay Dubey, CEO of Acasa Air, the prospects for the Indian aviation market are extraordinary and IATA Chief Willie Walsh believes that there is a huge opportunity for Indian airlines.
Indian carriers have a fleet of over 800 aircraft, including over 60 wide body aircraft, and there are 157 airports.
In a historic development on November 12, Air India completed the Vistara merger to form an integrated airline partly owned by Singapore Airlines, which will fly more than 120,000 passengers daily and connect more than 90 destinations.
The completion of the much-awaited merger, announced back in November 2022, comes within six weeks of the merger of Air India Express and AIX Connect (formerly AirAsia India).
The two mergers create a full-service carrier and low-cost carrier of scale for the Tata Group, which is looking to establish a “world-class global aviation company with an Indian heart”.
With the merger, two flight codes bid farewell to the Indian skies – Vistara’s ‘UK’ and AIX Connect’s ‘I5’.
Ending speculation about the future of the iconic ‘Maharaja’, once synonymous with Air India, the Tata Group has opted to rename Air India’s flight return program to ‘Maharaja Club’.
As it expands, Air India announced on December 9 that it will order an additional 100 Airbus aircraft, including 10 wide-body A350s and 90 narrow-body A320 family aircraft.
This is in addition to Air India’s 470 aircraft order with Airbus and Boeing last year.
Air India has begun retrofitting its narrow-body planes, and legacy wide-body planes are expected to be introduced in mid-2025.
The country’s largest airline IndiGo completes 18 years this year and has also introduced business class seats on select flights. While the carrier is expected to take delivery of its first A321 XLR next year, it is already expanding its international connectivity with new routes and codeshare partnerships.
In a big game plan, the airline unveiled an order for 30 wide-body A350-900 planes in May, and it now has a total outstanding plane order of about 1,000.
All told, supply chain disruptions are affecting aircraft deliveries.
Moreover, problems at Boeing and engine problems added to the problems for the airlines.
Air India MD and CEO Campbell Wilson said on November 28 that the airline will see most of its air traffic growth in 2025 coming from domestic and short-haul international operations.
After grounding operations in April five years ago, the fate of the single-storey Jet Airways was sealed by the Supreme Court ordering the liquidation of the airline on November 7.
Meanwhile, flight operations were significantly disrupted in late 2024 due to hoax bomb calls to airlines. In October alone, airlines received 666 hoax bomb threats, while the total number of such threats reached 999 till November 14 this year, according to official figures.
In 2025, two new airports – Noida in the National Capital Region and Navi Mumbai in Maharashtra – are expected to become operational. Both the airports set to decongest Delhi and Mumbai airports have completed certification flights.
In a significant development, on December 5, Parliament passed the Indian Aircraft Bill 2024 to replace the 90-year-old Aircraft Act, which eased doing business in aviation and encouraged aircraft manufacturing in India.
Concerns persist over the virtual duopoly of IndiGo and Air India Group as they have more than 90% domestic market share, SpiceJet faced financial and leasing headwinds before managing to raise ₹ 3,000 crore.
Acasa Air, which has been steadily climbing, is facing allegations related to safety issues, which the airline says are baseless and untrue. On January 18, the airline placed an order for an additional 150 Boeing 737 MAX aircraft.
Among other notable incidents, several airlines faced DGCA action for various lapses, and regional airline FLY91 took to the skies in March this year. Also, key regulators — the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) and the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) — are without a full-time chief, while the Airports Authority of India (AAI) has a new chairman.
Besides, the ministry is headed by TDP’s K Rammohan Naidu, with BJP’s Muralidhar Mohol deputizing him.
Last month, Air India’s Campbell Wilson described his change as “a Test match, not a T20”.
Similarly, Indian aviation is also long-haul.
published – December 23, 2024 at 01:44 PM IST