Sunny skies await Indian aviation?

The trails of mega-mergers, tailwinds of expanding fleets, flights and airports will dot the fast-growing Indian aviation firmament in 2025, though the dark clouds of supply chain woes will persist longer.

Photograph: Kind courtesy Pixabay.com

Also, new airline takeoffs, the future trajectory of revised norms to tackle pilot fatigue and efforts to reduce carbon emissions will be on the radar.

And in 2024, two airlines flew into the sunset, one airline is on a liquidation taxiway, aircraft orders climbed, single-day domestic air passenger traffic soared past record 5 lakh at least twice, and airfare movements continued to raise concerns. Not to leave out 999 hoax bomb calls received by airlines till November 14 this year.

The aviation sector had its share of accidents in the form of a few trainer aircraft crashes and a roof collapse incident at Terminal 1 of the Delhi airport that killed one person.

For the “fascinating” Indian market, where the domestic air traffic is projected to jump to 164-170 million this fiscal ending March 2025, the larger long-term focus will be on increasing wide-body aircraft, providing more direct overseas flight connectivity and making the country a global aviation hub.

In the words of Akasa Air’s chief Vinay Dube, prospects are exceptional for the Indian aviation market, and IATA chief Willie Walsh is of the view that there is a massive opportunity for Indian airlines.

The fleet of Indian carriers is more than 800 planes, including over 60 wide-body aircraft, and there are 157 airports.

In a landmark development on November 12, Air India completed the Vistara merger to create an integrated airline, partly owned by Singapore Airlines, which will be flying over 1,20,000 passengers daily and connecting more than 90 destinations.

The completion of the much-awaited amalgamation announced back in November 2022, came within six weeks of the integration of Air India Express and AIX Connect (formerly AirAsia India).

The two mergers have created a full-service carrier and a low-cost carrier of scale for the Tata Group, which is seeking to establish a “world-class global aviation company with an Indian heart”.

With the mergers, two flight codes have bid adieu to the Indian skies — Vistara’s ‘UK’ and AIX Connect’s ‘I5’.

Putting an end to speculations about the future of the iconic ‘Maharaja’, once synonymous with Air India, Tata Group has chosen to rename Air India’s flying returns programme as ‘Maharaja Club’.

As it expands, Air India, on December 9, announced placing an order to purchase 100 more Airbus aircraft, comprising 10 wide-body A350s and 90 narrow-body A320 family planes.

This is in addition to the orders for 470 aircraft that Air India had placed with Airbus and Boeing last year.

Air India has started retrofitting its narrow-body planes, and those of legacy wide-body aircraft are anticipated to start in mid-2025.

The country’s largest airline IndiGo turned 18 this year and has also introduced business class seats in select flights.

While the carrier is expected to take its first A321 XLR next year, it is already expanding its international connectivity with new routes and codeshare partnerships.

In plans for a larger play, the airline, in May, unveiled an order for 30 wide-body A350-900 aircraft, and it now has a total outstanding plane orders of nearly 1,000.

All said, supply chain disruptions are impacting aircraft deliveries.

Besides, issues at Boeing and engine problems have compounded the woes for airlines.

Air India MD and CEO Campbell Wilson, on November 28, said the airline will see most of the air traffic growth coming from domestic and short-haul international operations in 2025.

After grounding operations five years ago in April, the fate of once-storied Jet Airways was sealed, with the Supreme Court, on November 7, ordering the airline’s liquidation.

Meanwhile, flight operations were significantly disrupted in late 2024 due to hoax bomb calls to airlines.

In October alone, airlines received 666 hoax bomb threats, while the total number of such threats stood at 999 this year till November 14, as per official data.

Come 2025, two new airports — Noida in the National Capital Region and Navi Mumbai in Maharashtra — are expected to be operational.

Both airports, set to ease the congestion at Delhi and Mumbai airports, have completed the validation flights.

In a significant development, on December 5, Parliament passed The Bharatiya Vayuyan Vidheyak 2024 to replace the 90-year-old Aircraft Act to further improve the ease of doing business in aviation as well as encourage manufacturing of aircraft in India.

While concerns persist on the virtual duopoly of IndiGo and Air India Group as they together have over 90 per cent domestic market share, SpiceJet grappled with financial and lessor headwinds before managing to raise Rs 3,000 crore.

Akasa Air, which is on a steady albeit slow climb, is facing allegations related to safety issues, which the airline has termed as baseless and untrue.

On January 18, the airline placed an order for 150 more Boeing 737 MAX aircraft.

Among other notable happenings, many airlines faced DGCA action for various lapses, and regional airline FLY91 took to the skies in March this year.

Also, key regulators — Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) and Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) — are without a full-time head, while the Airports Authority of India (AAI) has a new chairman.

Besides, the ministry is helmed by TDP’s K Rammohan Naidu, with BJP’s Murlidhar Mohol as his deputy.

Last month, Air India’s Campbell Wilson described its transformation as a “Test match and not a T20”.

Similarly, Indian aviation too is in for the long haul.