Crowded skies and congested airports

THE OPENING up of the domestic sector to private airlines and the development of low-cost, no-frills airlines have contributed to a phenomenal growth in traffic at the country's airports. A resurgent economy and growing exports have meant freight by air too has recorded significant increases year on year.

The total passenger traffic has shown a 38.8 per cent increase in March 2006 compared with March 2005. International traffic rose by 14.4 per cent while domestic traffic recorded unimaginable growth in the same period. Just imagine, there were 5.16 million domestic passengers using the network of India's airports in March this year, as against 3.41 million in the same month last year. Such has been what still seems to be unplanned growth, as a result of which most, if not all, airports in the country are facing a severe congestion.

Be it New Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata or Chennai, Hyderabad or Bangalore, or even tier-two airports including Ahmedabad and Coimbatore, take-offs and landings are becoming a huge problem in the peak hours. From 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. and again from 4 p.m. to 10 p.m., most of the airports are more crowded than inter-State bus terminals. During the peak hours, aircraft are either forced to circle overhead awaiting a landing slot or queue up on the taxiways for their turn to take off. Pilots routinely tell their passengers after take-off that the flight was delayed due to "congestion at the airport." The reason for the congestion: continuing increase in the number of flights and the number of airlines operating to most airports.

Airlines and passengers alike are looking to the Union Ministry of Civil Aviation and the Airports Authority of India (AAI) to launch the much-talked-about project to develop, expand, and modernise the airports. Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel has weathered many storms over the modernisation of the New Delhi and Mumbai airports, involving the private sector in a major project. He has promised to unveil a similar package for the Kolkata and Chennai airports within the next couple of months. And the AAI has promised to undertake a major programme to develop and expand at least 35 domestic airports within the next two or three years.

With air travel costs dipping, domestic passenger traffic is expected to maintain its upward swing in the months and years to come. Unfortunately, the regulatory framework has not been able to cope with a rather unplanned growth in the aviation sector. In their hurry to capture a new market and register their presence, low-cost airlines are taking wing with leased aircraft and foreign pilots. Consequently, the congestion does not seem to be confined to the major airports or even the international ones. The tier-two cities, which the no-frills airlines have consciously tried to link, have reported stunning figures. Ahmedabad, Pune, Coimbatore, and Amritsar, for instance, have posted a very healthy growth in passenger traffic. Similarly, the open skies policy now pursued by the Centre has brought a range of international connections to new airports such as Pune, Ahmedabad or even Tiruchi. In a way, the availability of so many airports and airstrips across the country should be a major asset for India and its aviation sector.

The AAI's figures for March 2006, when compared with March 2005, provide a clear picture of the present scenario and point to the air pockets and rough weather that lie ahead if the Authority and the Aviation Ministry do not undertake the promised expansion and modernisation drive right away. In March this year, the airports handled 2.02 million international passengers and 5.16 million domestic passengers. This compares with 1.77 million and 3.41 million respectively in March last year. For the year 2005-06, there were 22.36 million international passengers (19.42 million the previous year), and 50.98 million domestic passengers (against 39.86 million the previous year). The growth in total passenger traffic has been 23.7 per cent year on year.

After the advent of Air Deccan, which pioneered the concept of no-frills airlines, SpiceJet and GoAir have taken this forward, carrying more first-time passengers by air. Other airlines such as Paramount and Kingfisher have tried to create a niche for themselves among business clients. The public sector domestic carrier, Indian Airlines, has acquired a new name `Indian' and has tried to cater to a large segment of traffic using its massive network.

In terms of international aircraft movement, there has been a 20 to 30 per cent increase in operations to major airports in India such as Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai, and Thiruvananthapuram. On the domestic circuits, aircraft movements have risen sharply in centres such as Bangalore, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Chennai, Pune, Goa, Kochi, Kozhikode, and Coimbatore to name a few. But AAI has also pointed to some decline in traffic at a few airports — notably, Lucknow, Patna, Rajkot, and Imphal.

It is interesting to note, again from the trends that the March figures suggest, that Nagpur reported a 148.6 per cent increase in total passenger traffic for the month when compared with March 2005. The figure was 121.7 per cent in the case of Pune, 98.6 per cent for Coimbatore, and 68.5 per cent for Ahmedabad. At the top end of the spectrum, the 15 international airports recorded a 38.8 per cent increase in passenger traffic in March, while at the bottom rung, the 23 domestic airports posted a 32.5 per cent growth. Kochi, which boasts the first private airport, witnessed a 27 per cent rise in traffic. For the first few years, the Cochin International Airport Ltd. (CIAL) found it difficult to even pay interest on the borrowings, But now, it is not only financially comfortable but planning to offer a whole range of concessions, including waiver of parking charges, to international airlines. That is what proper infrastructure combined with a healthy traffic growth can do for an airport.

But, taking a typical case scenario in Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai or Bangalore, passengers often tend to lose their calm while going through the boarding procedures or waiting for the aircraft to take off. The lack of basic infrastructure for, say, baggage scanning, check in (for some airlines), and security check is glaring. Mumbai's domestic airport cannot even offer enough seats to passengers waiting to board their aircraft. One experiment may be to provide a separate terminal for low-cost airlines.

Alongside passenger traffic, even freight movement by air has picked up momentum. The total freight handled in the country has registered a 13 per cent growth in March this year compared with the same month in 2005. Coimbatore saw a 78 per cent increase in freight handling this March, thanks to the hosiery town of Tirupur and the textile industry in the region. A lot many freight services are now in operation to all parts of the country.

At one point of time, when the domestic sector was first opened to private operators, Indian Airlines, which was till then a monopoly, battled to retain a 60 per cent share in traffic. Today, the private airlines together have taken away anywhere from 50 to 85 per cent of passengers in different airports. For instance, the private airlines accounted for 85.5 per cent of passenger traffic in March in Bangalore, 84.8 per cent in Guwahati, 83.4 per cent in Ahmedabad, and 82 per cent in Goa. It was more than 75 per cent in Mumbai, Kolkata, and Kochi. For the public sector airlines, it was 57.2 per cent in Kozhikode, 55.9 per cent in Amritsar, and 49.2 per cent in Thiruvananthapuram, with a national average of just 24.8 per cent of passenger traffic.

Most of the private airlines have just ordered their regular fleet of aircraft. And if all of them manage to survive in the race for market share, Indian skies and the airports will face a major infrastructure and security challenge. First, the regulator has to get its act together and put in place much-need rules of the game to provide a fairly even playing field. Secondly, the Airports Authority must quickly get going on its major plan of developing and expanding domestic airports to cope with the projected traffic. This will mean terminal buildings with adequate facilities and equipment, runways of international standards to take wide-bodied jets too, and supporting infrastructure to handle aircraft, service passengers, and provide an interface to the city centre in terms of transport.

Courtesy: The Hindu