Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Indian Civil Aviation!

Overview:

The history of civil aviation in India began in December 1912th This was the opening of the first domestic air route between Karachi and Delhi by the Indian state of air services in collaboration with Imperial Airways, United Kingdom, although it was a simple extension of the London - Karachi flight of the latter. Three years later, the first Indian airline, Tata Sons Ltd., started a regular airmail service between Karachi and Madras without patronage from the government.

At the time of independence, the number of air carriers operating within and outside the boundaries of the firm which transports air cargo and passengers, nine. It was reduced to eight, with Orient Airways move to Pakistan. These companies were: Tata Airlines, Indian Airways, Air service of India, Deccan Airways, Ambica Airways, Bharat Airways and Mistry Airways.

In early 1948, was a joint sector company Air India International Ltd, established by the Indian Government and Air India (formerly Tata Airline) with a capital of RS 2 crore and a fleet of three Lockheed constellation aircraft. Its first flight took off on 8 June 1948 on the Mumbai (Bombay)-London air route. At the time of its nationalization in 1953, it was operating four weekly flights between Mumbai-London and two weekly flights between Mumbai and Nairobi. JV was led by J.R.D. Tata, a visionary who had founded the first Indian airline in 1932 and although the pilot had its inaugural flight.

Importance of Air Transport:

Air transport is the most modern, fastest and the latest addition to the modes. Because of the speed at which aircraft can fly, air travel is becoming increasingly popular. As far as world trade is concerned it is still dominated by maritime transport, because aviation is very expensive and are also unsuitable for carrying heavy and bulky goods. However, transport of high value light goods and perishable goods is increasingly done by air.

Nationalization of airlines:

The soaring prices of aviation fuel, mounting wage bills and large fleet took a high price for the airlines then. Financial health of companies declined despite liberal Government patronage, especially from 1949, and an upward trend in air freight and passenger traffic. The trend was not consistent with the expectations that these companies had gone on an expansion amok during the post-World War II period, acquiring aircraft parts ad.

The government created the Air Traffic study committee in 1950 to solve problems in the airline. Although the committee found no justification for nationalization of the airlines, it favored their voluntary merger. Such a merger, however, was not welcomed by airlines.

Foreign Airlines:

Foreign airlines carrying international passenger traffic to and from India existed long before Independence. Their activities are regulated by bilateral agreements from time to time between India and the governments of respective countries. In 1980-81, 35 number of such companies, it rose to 49 in 1996-97.

The proportion of foreign airlines in India's scheduled international traffic has increased. In 1971 the share was 55.58 percent, which went up to 65 percent, and dropped to 58 percent during 1972-75. It fell to 55.72 percent in 1976 and further to 55.02 percent in 1977. Between 1978 and 1990 gradually increased and rose to 75.93 per cent. In 1996 the share was nearly 72 per cent.

Open Sky Policy:

Open-sky policy came in April 1990. The policy allowed air taxi-operators to fly from any airport, both on a charter and a non charter basis and to define their own roads, cargo and passengers. The operator was however required to use aircraft with 15 seats and in accordance with the rules. In 1990 made private air taxi operators, 15,000 passengers. This figure rose to 4.1 lakh in 1992, 29.2 lakh in 1993, 36 lakh in 1994 and 48.9 lakh in 1995.

1996, private air taxi operators carried 49.08 lakh passengers, which amounted to 41.14 per cent stake in domestic air passenger traffic. Seven operators namely NEPC Airlines, Skyline NEPC, Jet Air, Archana Airways, Sahara India Airlines, Modiluft and East West Airlines has since acquired the status of scheduled airlines. Besides this, there were 22 nonscheduled private companies and 34 private companies, there is no objection certificate in 1996. The number of plus 120 category aircraft in the private sector was 34, and the total fleet strength was 75 in June, 1996. Two out of seven scheduled air taxi operators suspended their operations in 1996 due to unavailability of aircraft.

Infrastructure and associated facilities:

Airport Authority of India:

1.1995 launched in April by the merger of the International Airport Authority of India and National Airport Authority of India, the Airport Authority of India was to handle all issues relating to infrastructure for civil aviation and transportation on international and domestic airports and enclaves in the country .

Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Uran Academy:

It was established in Fursatganj to standardize and improve the flying training facilities in the country. Until January 1997 had trained 289 pilots for fixed wing aircraft and 20 pilots on the helicopter flight.

Flying / gliding training clubs:

December 31.1996, in addition to the aforementioned Academy, 41 flying clubs / institutes and their branches, including nine private institutions were imparting flying training. Five gliding clubs, seven sliding wings to fly clubs, and a government Gliding Center, Pune, was to provide training in gliding.

Development of Civil Aviation:

The repeal of the Air Corporation Act March 1, 1994 the opportunity for private companies offering air transport.

Six players were given the status of registered traders on 1 February 1995.

Currently there are five international airports and 87 domestic airports in the country with 28 civilian enclaves for defense purposes.

The Airport Authority of India plans to invest Rs 35,000 million for the construction and up gradation of airports.

Budgetary support at Rs 485.50 million was allocated to AAI in 1996-97.

In August 1996 in a major policy decision, the government gave the private sector to set up air cargo complexes in a bid to ensure smooth movement of export cargo.

Domestic and foreign investors including NRIs have been invited to participate in the development of infrastructure support at selected airports.

With a market share of 43%, Indian Airlines is the largest player in aviation.

Rs 24,710 million have been marked for development of civil aviation in the annual plan for 1997-98.

The Indian market for air cargo:

Growth in air cargo in India has also been a big part of it could not have kept pace with developments throughout the world. Table 1 shows how both international and domestic air cargo traffic has increased, reflecting a total annual growth.

Prospects for the Industry:

Future projections reflect that air cargo industry, both in the domestic sector and the international sector will continue its upward trend in growth. Domestic air cargo will continue at a somewhat constant, while the international air cargo movement, which shows a steeper growth rate shows that international air cargo trade will flourish in a higher growath rate.

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