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Avaition Industry

1. INTRODUCTION

1.1 GENESIS / HISTORY

The birth of civil aviation in India began happened on Feb 18, 1911 when Henri Piquet flew a Humber biplane. In 1932, JRD Tata, a visionary launches India’s first scheduled airline, Tata Airline and also piloted its first innaugral fight. In early 1948, a joint sector company, Air India International Ltd. was established by the Government of India and Air India (earlier Tata Airline) with a capital of Rs 2 crore and a fleet of three Lockheed constellation aircraft. The joint venture was headed by J.R.D. Tata.
After the Second World War as many as eleven private domestic airlines operated in India. The supply-demand was not in balance as the Indian aviation market was still in a fledgling state. Many of these airlines were making heavy losses as a result of which the government decided to nationalise the airlines by forming one domestic carrier and one international flag carrier. In 1953 Air-India International (name truncated to Air-India in 1962) became a public sector corporation along with Indian Airlines Corporation (catering to domestic and regional routes). Eight erstwhile private airlines were merged to form Indian Airlines Corp., namely Deccan Airways, Bharat Airways, Air India, Himalayan Aviation, Kalinga Airlines, Indian National Airways, Air Services of India and Air-Services India. The fleet was fairly big consisting of 73 DC-3 Dakotas, 12 Vikings, 3 DC-4s and some other smaller aircraft. (*)
(Source :(*) www.knowindia.net)

1.2 TODAY

There has been a marked change in the civil aviation scenery in India. Whereas prior to 1992 when the two public sector airlines, namely Air-India and Indian Airlines enjoyed a monopoly in the domestic sector, today a dozen airlines are competing for a market share. The Indian civil aviation industry is expanding by leaps and bounds. A slew of low-cost airlines is operating or will commence operations during the current year. India's main airports are beginning to face...