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January 3 - January 5, 2025
IndiGo took flight in 2006, which was certainly not the most conducive time to get into aviation business.
When it was founded?
nonconformist promoters Rahul Bhatia and Rakesh Gangwal had the self belief to get their airline up and running—and what a journey it has been!
Founders names
demographic cohort called ‘millennials’ had arrived, and India was on the go. This generation looked at air travel just as another mode of transport, albeit quicker.
How millenials travel?
When Indian aviation was unshackled after five long decades of the government’s monopolistic grasp, Indians again took to aviation like never before.
1990s
The first airmail service in the world, demonstrated in 1911, is engraved in the name of India.
First airmail
The second phase commenced with the passage of Air Corporation Act 1953,1 which nationalized all existing scheduled airlines and made almost every air service the sole preserve of government corporations. This phase lasted till 1991 when aviation sector opened once again.
Act to regulate all gov services
plane from the historic town of Allahabad and flew across the Yamuna River to Naini carrying 6,500 mails.
First airmail
By 1915, Tata Sons had started a weekly airmail service between Karachi and Madras.
Tata
who seeded the idea of starting an air service in the mind of aviation enthusiast, J.R.D. Tata. The duo started Tata Airlines in 1932 in a profit-sharing partnership mode.
Airline by tatas
Tata Airlines was renamed Air India in 1946. J.R.D. was offered the chairmanship of the airline
Air India origin story
In hindsight, the nationalization of airline industry was desirable as it may not have been easy for a private enterprise to compete effectively or survive in the emerging global aviation scenario.
Why nationalization was necessary for airlines in 1947?
government, J.R.D. protected the larger slice of the Tata empire from the government’s backlash which was not keen on providing much support to private enterprises.
How tatas benefitted from working with government?
R.E. Grant Govan Raymond Eustace Grant Govan was a leading industrialist in India with interest in flour and sugar business. His real love, however, was cricket and aviation. Grant founded the Roshanara Cricket Club in Delhi and later became the founding president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) in 1928.7
Founder of bCCI!
J.R.D. Tata became the first person to get his pilot license from this club in 1929, while India’s first women commercial pilots Rabia Futehally and Mohini Shroff10 are also alumni of this institute.
First pilots in India
many air services such as Irawaddy Flotilla and Airways, Indian Trans Continental Airways, Madras Air Taxi Services, Indian National Airways and Himalayan Air Transport and Survey took to the sky, but did not last beyond
Air Entrepreneurs
With the enactment of the act, all licences granted for scheduled operations under the Indian Aircraft Act 1934 ceased to be valid. However, non-scheduled operations such as air ambulances, pilot-training and charter
Gov regulation from 1953·
were formed—Air India Corporation for international scheduled operations and Indian Airlines Corporation, primarily for domestic operations and to also serve a few neighbouring countries.
Two main domestic airline companies.
British Airways remained a state carrier till 1987 when the Conservative government of Margaret Thatcher privatized it.
Privatization of BA in 1987
The American airline industry, though heavily regulated by both the Federal agency and state governments, never lost its private enterprise independence.
Private enterprise independence of US
The USA, which is the birthplace of aviation, eventually became the global leader in the
USA birthplce of modern aviation
The average length of a flight doubled from 903 kilometres in 1950 to 1,816 kilometres in 2000,29 but it has not changed much since then—with 1,827 kilometres in 2012.
Average length of a flight
But the growth in air traffic till the 1980s was primarily fuelled by the USA and Europe.
Growth in air traffic primarily fueled by US and Europe.
The low-cost carrier (LCC) phenomenon had also not taken wings in China, India and
LCC in India
According to ICAO, the LCCs carried an estimated 1.2 billion passengers in 2017 and accounted for approximately 30 per cent of the total scheduled passengers
Statistic 2
LCCs in Europe account for 33 per cent of the total passengers carried, while in Asia and North America, their share is 31 per cent and 26 per cent, respectively.
LCCs statistics
So, we have Transavia from the stable of Air France-KLM, and Germanwings and Eurowings from Lufthansa.
LCC and FCC difference
Southwest Airlines was incorporated in Dallas, Texas, in 1967, but was
SA story
But Kelleher’s relentless pursuance of the legal bottlenecks for four frustrating years at various forums ultimately won the day
Fight patiently
LCCs such as Ryan Air, easyJet and AirAsia. IndiGo too owes much of its inspiration to Southwest.
Southwest influence
The airline offered just basic flying services without the frills such as free meal, alcohol, etc.
LCC difference
Its top seven cities—Houston, San Antonio, Dallas, Austin, Fort Worth, El Paso and Arlington—are spread far and wide.
What is unique about texas?
The dominance of LCCs even in a rich continent like Europe can be gauged from the fact that in 2017, they accounted for six out of the top eleven airline carriers.
Dominance of LCC in europe
From carrying 82,000 passengers in 1985—the first year of its operation—to ferrying 130 million in 2017, the flight of Ryanair
Ryanair journey
2,000 daily flights from 215 destinations in 36 countries. It has a fleet of 430 Boeing 737 aircraft and a booked order of another 240 Boeing 737,
Ryanair stats
Ryanair was founded by Thomas Anthony Ryan, Christopher Ryan and Liam Lonergan in 1985 and was headquartered at Swords, a key satellite town of Dublin, Ireland. The trio had the money, air travel business experience and were driven by the vision to challenge the duopoly dominance of British Airways and Irish carrier, Aer Lingus.
Ryan air story
However, what has also worked for easyJet is that now it is a professional-driven company, as the founders, who are also the largest individual shareholders in the company, are no longer part of the Board.
Professionally run company
EasyJet still doesn’t have a reputation for being a generous dividend payer, but then it has one of the strongest financial books for an airline company.
Easyjet airline company
Excellent relationship with the home government.
Big factor!
Before the arrival of AirAsia, less than 6 per cent Malaysians had travelled on a plane,
Air Travel
Air Deccan was the LCC pioneer here, commencing operations in 2003. Today, LCCs account for nearly 70 per cent of domestic market share and their impact has been much deeper.
India LCC market
direct flight between Delhi–Mumbai, which also accounts for the highest traffic and highest number of corporate travellers, is performed in two and a half hours while Mumbai–Bangalore is less than two hours.
Shortened flight time
In India, some secondary airports such as Noida International (Jewar), Navi Mumbai, Bhogapuram (Visakhapatnam), Mopa (Goa), Purandar (Pune) and
Secondary airports in india
For now, the absence of secondary airports means that there is nothing really like a ‘true’ low-cost operation here.
Why LCC in India is different
The reopening of the Indian aviation sector began during Rajiv Gandhi’s first term as the prime minister (31 October 1984–2 December 1989).
RG government
The Air Corporations (Transfer of Undertakings and Repeal) Act, 1994.52 With this, the two existing corporations—Air India and Indian Airlines—were converted into public
Act yhat inspires entrepreneurial business
rise in the number of air travellers. From approximately 29 million annual traffic in 2000, the number shot up more than twice to 64.3 million in 2010 and to 120 million by 2015.
Air travellers in India
Airports Authority of India (AAI) currently manages a total of 125 airports, which includes 11 international airports, 81
AAAI manages 125 airports in india
privatization of airports had begun in 2006 with the handing over of the management control of New Delhi and Mumbai airports to private operators. These airports are now managed via company structures
Best decision ever
The pre-IndiGo years (1993–2005) turned out to be a phase of high growth and high mortality.
Pre indigo phase
The airline was to be called IndiGo—India on the go!62 A year later, on Friday 4 August 2006, with just one aircraft—an Airbus A320—
Indigo Story
