A "bullishness" greets the skies as more passengers are set to step into airports and more aircraft, including A350s, are ready to carry them in expanding routes in 2024 even as the fate of two bankrupt airlines remain uncertain.
A slew of airports and terminal building inaugurations and revised norms to address pilot fatigue issue will also happen in the new year.
“As far as goals for 2024 are concerned, it is to enable many more airports to be put in place, the fleet size to grow... we are getting roughly 2-5 planes a month between Air India, IndiGo and Akasa Air.”
"We are going to rapidly expand our connectivity and it is also our intent to try and establish the first international air hub in India," Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia told PTI in an interview.
Air India and IndiGo placing orders for 970 planes, Go First filing for voluntary insolvency proceedings, an amended insolvency framework to address aircraft lessors' concerns, and air passenger traffic touching a record high of more than 4.63 lakh in a single day in November, were among the key developments in 2023.
Mr. Scindia emphasised there is a "bullishness with regard to civil aviation" and the outlook is positive.
"As far as airlines are concerned, we need to concentrate on a great travel experience, increased OTP (On Time Performance) and make sure we have as many aircraft in the air," the minister said.
For 2024, the country's largest airline IndiGo's CEO Pieter Elbers said the demand for air travel remains robust, and despite the global supply chain challenges, the overall operating environment remains conducive.
While profitability will be uncertain, aviation consultancy CAPA Advisory said that after a long time, India has a stable airline system led by IndiGo and Air India Group.
Looking back at 2023, following are among the notable developments.
Airlines
Go First, long impacted by Pratt & Whitney engine problems, filed for voluntary insolvency proceedings in May. Legal battles started by Go First lessors looking to take back their planes deepened and even forced the government to amend certain norms under the insolvency law.
Prior to that, 2023 started off on a turbulent note for Tata Group-owned Air India as an incident of a drunk passenger allegedly urinating on a woman onboard an international flight that happened in 2022 flared up and aviation regulator DGCA also slapped a fine on the carrier.
Few other incidents, including non-compliance with certain safety norms involving various airlines, also saw action being taken by DGCA.
Tata Group is consolidating its airline business and the merger of AirAsia India with Air India Express is almost complete while that of Vistara with Air India is still in the works.
Crisis-hit SpiceJet managed to garner lifeline capital of more than Rs 2,250 crore. From aircraft grounding to lessors seeking repossession of planes to legal woes, the budget carrier faced it all but threw a surprise by expressing interest to buy Go First.
IndiGo carried over 100 million passengers this year and added over 80 new routes.
After taking off in August 2022, Akasa Air is now preparing to start overseas operations.
Jet Airways, which stopped operations in April 2020, remains grounded as its insolvency resolution plan is still hanging fire.
The regional air connectivity scheme UDAN, Mr. Scindia said has given birth to five regional airlines – Star Air, IndiaOne Air, FlyBig, Fly91 and Air Taxi.
Aircraft
Air India placed historic orders for 470 planes from Boeing and Airbus while IndiGo has placed the "world's largest ever single aisle fleet order" for 500 Airbus aircraft. Akasa Air is expected to place a three-digit order for aircraft soon.
Air India will operate the wide-body A350 in the new year.
However, grounding of aircraft remains a key concern. Among others, IndiGo is likely ground some planes next year for inspection due to certain P&W engine problems.
As Mr. Scindia said, "it is very unfortunate and shocking that most of the AOG (Aircraft On Ground) are due to one original equipment supplier that is P&W".
In December, the civil aviation ministry said 164 planes were lying idle at 15 airports.
Airports
More airports and terminal buildings are set to be operational, including the Jewar airport in Uttar Pradesh in September-October, and also Navi Mumbai airport in Maharashtra.
"In 2014, we had 74 airports and in the last nine-and-a-half years under the visionary leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, we have built an additional 75 airports, taking the total to 149," he said.
Delhi airport, the country's largest airport, is projected to see over 70 million passenger traffic this fiscal ending March 2024.
Passenger Services & Flight Crew
While air traffic continued to soar, many a time passengers grappled with tough times, mainly in the form of flight delays and service quality issues.
On Time Performance (OTP) of airlines took a beating in recent times. Domestic airlines carried over 13.82 crore passengers during the January-November period and the number is expected to touch around 15 crore by year-end.
On the services front, there were complaints against airlines, including Air India, Vistara, SpiceJet, IndiGo and Akasa Air.
In a rare instance, Air India group and Akasa Air locked horns over alleged poaching of pilots from Akasa Air.
DGCA is finalising revised norms, including for rest hours, as part of efforts to address the pilot fatigue issue.
