INDIA AT 100: Transport – Air

 My article - Rejected. :-(

The sky is’nt the limit, The sky has no limit. – Sarah Barker, Astrophysicist.

As a journalist, it was my dream to cover the 100^th Independence Day celebrations in New Delhi. My journey from Ladakh to New Delhi was interrupted by a frantic call informing me of my mother’s cardiac arrest and her hospital admission. It was imminent to make that emergency trip to Kanyakumari via. Thiruvananthapuram. Was fortunate to discover that the ‘supersonic flight’ seats were available, and with humanoids support all arrangements were done instantly.

I landed, and then opted for the flying taxi car to take me to Kanyakumari in under 30 minutes. Meeting my mother at the recovery room was a huge relief and she in her usual best directed me to make my duty count and head back to New Delhi to cover the celebrations. As I flew back from Kanyakumari airport to New Delhi, was reminiscing the possibilities created by air travel.

Coming together – Beginning:

From the early days of walking, riding horses to flying, humans have come a long way. During the days of Ramayana, Ravana had abducted Sita to Lanka in his personalised air travel machine – ‘the Pushpak Viman’.  Kites were flown to test the weather; hot air balloons were used for first human flight and along with gliders were used for different purposes.

The Wright brothers were credited with inventing, building, and flying the world's first successful airplane in 1903 marking the beginning of the aviation industry. Air Mail transport system by the U.S. Postal Service and Charles Lindbergh’s successful solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean followed. India was always a strategic location for stop-over of air-services and therefore was one among the first few countries to take to aviation. The first mail flight from Allahabad in 1911 eventually led to the eminent late. JRD Tata setting up the country’s first TATA airline in 1932.

Dr. V.M. Ghatge, Chief Designer at Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), had the Mock-up of the first indigenously designed Aircraft, the HT - 2 Trainer.

Keeping together – Progress:

In 1952 civil aviation was nationalized it was once one of the top airlines in the world. Then there was liberalisation of bilateral rights, high aviation cost, mismanagement, corruption, all of which led to the downfall of Air India. In1989 the government came up with Open Sky Policy. Licences were issued for capacity building of Indian aviation sector. Countries first private flight operated in 1992 by East West Travel and Trade Links Private Limited. In 1995 Tahkiyudeen Wahid its owner was shot, it’s expansion plans were thwarted, and they wound up in 1997. Jet airways led by Naresh Goyal took to sky in May 1993. With the suspected underworld links, hijacking of airplanes, one of the key questions was which ministry should provide security clearance to air operators – Home affairs or civil aviation. Home affairs was entrusted with intelligence inquiries. Jet airways, Deccan Aviation, Kingfisher Airlines, IndiGo and SpiceJet then became key players.  In 2014, the Tatas made a re-entry into the aviation section – as a minority partner in Air Asia, then launched ‘Vistara airlines’ a joint venture with Singapore airlines. With denationalisation, in 2021, the Tatas repurchased Air India.

Being brought up in North India, when we moved south, I had been missing North Indian delicacies. When I went to US for my post-graduation in the early 90’s – which took two days to reach – with couple of change in flights, and day light saving; I was awestruck to see all North Indian foods available there. Thanks to freight and cold storage.

Dr Vikram Sarabhai had thrust upon the Indian government the need for a comprehensive space programme. The Indian National Committee for Space Research in 1962, which became the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) was set up. Under his leadership, the Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station was established with a successful launch in 1963. The first Indian satellite Aryabhatta was sent into orbit in 1975.  India became proud custodian of remote sensing technology, VIKAS liquid fuel, well equipped Data space centre, Satellite navigation system, GSLV rockets and operational vehicles. Chandrayan 1 in 2008 was set up to embark on moon.  Mars Mission was also set up to study the universe from single platform.

Outside India in 2021 space tourist focused missions gained momentum with new beginning in space tourism. Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic with Sirisha Bandla from India joining him and five others in their first journey to the edge of space from New Mexico, Jeff Bezos with Blue Origin and SpaceX each flew their first tourist-focused missions. Roscosmos (the Russian federal space agency) had two sets of space tourists into space, including a mission with Space Adventures. Russian film crew started real time shooting of dramas on ISS – International Space Station.

The Government of India had launched regional connectivity scheme named UDAN (Ude Desh ka Aam Nagrik) to make flying affordable for common man providing monetary support for the development of infrastructure across tier-II and tier-III cities. Not only airplanes, but also helicopters and seaplanes were covered by this scheme. Several routes were planned by keeping the tourism sector in focus. In October 2020, the first seaplane service was launched in the country, with water aerodromes in addition to having airports and helipads.  SpiceJet bagged the first contract for this. Airlines had upgraded themselves with amazing facilities, and world class luxuries even when LCCs (Low Cost Carriers) had become dominant players.

There were frequent helicopter accidents, one even took away the life of our first CDS General Bipin Rawat. Couple of airline companies went bankrupt. Government of India realised the need for smart spending in the aviation sector.  Question lingered, was there a need for a civil aviation ministry? When India was in the forefront, middle east did not have any airlines, then Emirates and Qatar Airlines emerged among the best in the world.

Working Together - Success

The aviation industry is divided along three lines viz. Commercial, General and Military excluding the charted flights. An organisation which helps by providing a stable air fare structure and smooth working of International airlines system is IATA (International Air Transport Association) headquartered in Montreal, Canada, and ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organisation) ensures the safety of flying. These organisations had created the culture of ‘Black Box Thinking’ in the aviation industry. Unlike other industries, especially medical, where the reasons for failure is hidden, in aviation each failure was made a case study and discussed, to ensure that it was not repeated. There are many safety issues grappling the aviation industry, including the mental health of the employees, security, quality of the airlines and runways, to name a few.

Aviation Industry was in the forefront to promote a beautiful mindset, to be adopted by all for progress, the question remained how could we leverage it? 

As said by Giovanni Bisignani in the Vision 2050 document, with passengers at the core and the real cost of travel falling and number of travellers increasing multi-fold, airline industry continued to provide great value to individual, consumers and to society with right technology, efficient and sufficient infrastructure and financial sustainability. One of the industry’s biggest challenges was to evolve from the financial disaster of a partial deregulation that had created fierce competition among airlines but without giving them the normal commercial freedoms to do business. The industry was sick. To protect the value that aviation delivered to consumers, companies, countries, and the global economy, it provided a common vision to change.

The way forward was a collaborative effort from the Indian Air Force, ISRO, private sector and Government of India with a vision to make India a Leader in Aviation Technology.  Private players were introduced to invest in and compete with HAL. National space ecosystem was brought into place with public and private participation.

Their area of focus was:

·       technological advancements

·       organizational restructuring

·       deeper penetration of air and space services

·       increasing global presence of Indian players

·       Less Government intervention in the day-to-day functioning, but strict monitoring of the finance and security and

·       a vibrant cooperative and collaborative approach at the international level.

The key drivers were:

·       Cost efficiency

·       Indian skills and human resources

·       Innovation—with simple low-cost, but effective, solutions

·       Quality without compromising on service, output, speed and communication, by streamlining and improving the process, putting in place the modern technology and implementing the innovative methods

·       Safety and Security

These brought about new economic model ensuring safety, with quality checks and systems, enhancing the performance. Some interesting developments over the years, fixing the basics were:

·      With Gaganyaan India became the 4th country to send people to space. Many ventures around moon continued in the path of Chandrayaan-1 and across Mars with Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM)/Mangalyaan. Aditya L1 was set up to study sun. RLV-TD was the first space plain with low-cost access to space, created by Indian space transportation system. Space odyssey was given prominence to explore the unexplored. Research was also around Abell 2256 Galaxy. 

·       Indian Airports were brought up to International quality many new airports were built. Flight schools and dedicated cargo terminals were set across the length and breadth of the country. Number of airports increased, with some states ensuring that there is an airport in every district. Aviation impacted mobility between continents and cities and mobility within cities.

·       Quick and right actions were taken against people for inefficiencies and corruption.  Though government had become less important as an owner in India unlike middle east, they played key role to ensure safety and security, provide checks on money laundering, competition among the private players and the effects of the five forces  effecting the profitability of the airline industry - Intensity of rivalry, The threat of new entrants, Bargaining power of customers, Bargaining power of suppliers ,The threat of substitutes.

https://www.iata.org/contentassets/bccae1c5a24e43759607a5fd8f44770b/vision-2050.pdf

·       Efficiencies were brought in Supply Chain and freight Management, we had companies competing with and ranked ahead of global giants like FedEx and DPDHL in Freight transportation. India took a great leap of faith in this area becoming a leader in Freight transport. Use of drones and similar innovations related primarily to moving goods quickly become viable for moving people as well.

·       Increasing use of sustainable aviation fuels (SAF) in lieu of Airline turbine fuel (ATF). The use of alternate fuels in place of fossil fuels like electric tractions and solar energy was tapped. The penetration of electric vehicles increased with reduction in costs and increase of competition. With uprise of crude price and its depletion, there was no other go, than to look for alternatives.

·       Proper cost control – while all other major cost categories have remained roughly stable as a share of total operating costs, Fuel is the only major cost item that has become significantly larger over time. There were no cost cutting at the cost of safety. 

·       Aircraft de-icing facility, improvements in landing and navigation facilities, safety and security measures, maintenance of the aircraft were all part of R&D. These were constantly upgraded and improved.

·       Aircrafts were manufactured in India including helicopters, turbofan, jet aircrafts, double decker aircrafts both for civilian and military purposes. Developed electric and hybrid electric aircraft in the short-range and <100 seat category and further enhanced for larger aircraft. Introduced electric, hybrid and T5 zero-emissions (hydrogen) aircraft in the 2035-2040 timeframe, catering to domestic and global geographies, and low cost and full service carrier segment.

·       Air carriers in India added new jobs with new airline entries and an increase in passengers, R&D, Commercial pilot jobs, making of the robots. The struggles and resilience of air hostesses, of excessive sexual objectification were set right. Travel agents were in demand, with offers and better refunds on cancellation. People started insuring themselves during travel, to cover various risks. Engineers were in high demand.

·       Security surveillance was monitored, with air border rightly defined and followed. The vast investment in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Big Data was seen as a promising way of increasing safety, efficiency and sustainability. These technologies helped improve aviation infrastructure and airspace utilization.

·       Air travel was a preferred mode for long distance, and for transport of freight too. concerned citizens demand for responsible travel policies, measures to reduce carbon footprint, inclusive features like accessibility for differently abled, trans were catered to.

·       There were layers in space travel with flying cars, where cars on road, that could be put on flight mode to overcome hinderances and accelerate speed. Balloons, helicopters, local flights, international flights, chartered flights, cargo flights, supersonic flights, jet, satellites, rockets, flew in different layers. Airspace was closely monitored and regulated.

·       With increase in cold storage facility, there is more of import and export of perishable goods nationally and internationally.

 ·       Travel and Tourism was promoted and became accessible for domestic and international passengers to remote locations. With ease and standardisation in global visa restrictions, immigration checks, demand for cross – cultural travel increased.

 ·       ‘Aircations’ (cruises in the sky) have become popular. Space travel is reasonably priced, although stays in ‘Spatels’ (space hotels) are still reserved for the relatively well off and week-long stays in Space is for wealthy.

 ·       Out-of-sector carbon reduction market-based measures were put in place, and focus was to be in line with the Paris Agreement goal to limit global temperature rise to "well below 2ºC above pre-industrial levels", keeping in check the Air, Sound and water pollution.

Both passenger traffic, and freight traffic had drastic increase over the years. With increase in economic development, there was an increase in mobility and demand for transport in India. Many families had their members outside India. They kept exchanging gifts and good from international locations and travelled to visit relatives across the globe. Population and it’s spread increased and so the need for transport.

The growth of the industry was not hit by turbulent weather around of inflation, fuel shortage, political unrest, international restrictions, cross border commotions, pandemics, corruption and government approvals. Modernization of infrastructure and reorganisation helped growth of Air Transport contributing to economic growth, social development and environmental efficiency.

 In a densely globalized economy, air transport is a key element in the country’s transport infrastructure. By 2037 in line with IATAs estimate, India had around 572 million passengers per year, providing major opportunity for growth of airlines.

As the flight was landing Delhi my heart recited, 

I am restless. I am athirst for far-away things.
My soul goes out in a longing to touch the skirt of the dim distance.
O Great Beyond, O the keen call of thy flute!

~             Rabindranath Tagore

 

 

Generation today, is blessed with the potential to see the world from thousands of feet up in the air and be in any part of the world they want to be in, in a short while - even sky is not the limit. The pride of modern self-sufficiency is real for all and not just a dream.

Proud Indian’s attended the 100th year of Independence with people in audience planning and working on teleportation and time travel. Wishes are horses and anyone can fly and ride.