Indian Airline Industry in 2017

The Indian airline industry reached a new high by flying ten crore passengers in 2017. The industry will be keenly watching the developments on Air India in 2018 and how much money the government would earn through disinvestment. There will be intensive bidding for the national carrier and the winner may end up marching ahead with a substantive slice of the market.

On June 28, 2017 that the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, the country’s aviation regulator, came up with a figure that lit up the industry’s mood. It said, for the first time in the country’s aviation history, domestic carriers flew more than one crore passengers in May 2017. This feat was repeated again in November 2017 at 1.05 crore and it led to breaching another landmark. The year 2018 could see better finances for domestic airlines. Credit rating agency ICRA has said that domestic airlines are expected to reduce losses this fiscal ending March riding on healthy seat occupancy coupled by a moderation in capacity, rise in tourism demand and economic environment. However, it has warned that inadequate aviation infrastructure, which has constrained the performance of airlines, remained a bottleneck. This would be one area where the government would have to work on.