Airline and Airport Logistic handling

Airlines and Airports

The first commercial flight in India was made on February 18, 1911, when a French pilot Monseigneur Piguet flew airmails from Allahabad to Naini, covering a distance of about 10 km in as many minutes.

In 1996-97,

• India has 8 international airports
• There are four major metros
• There are 85 domestic airports
• Major airports handle over 90% of the international traffic along with 40% of the domestic traffic

In 2004-05,

• India has 15 international airports
• Total passenger traffic handled by Indian airports is over 60 million.
• There are four major metros
• There are 87 domestic airports
• Private sector participation is also allowed in airport modernization, ground services, and aircraft manufacture.

The Airport Authority of India (AAI) manages total 122 Airports in the country, which include 11 International Airports, 94 domestic airports and 28 civil enclaves. Top 5 airports in the country handle 70% of the passenger traffic of which Delhi and Mumbai together alone account for 50%. Passenger and cargo traffic has growth at an average of about 9% over the last 10 years

Traffic at Indian airports is growing rapidly:

Currently Airports Authority of India (AAI) is the primary operating agency of airports in India

Fleet-wise also Indian carriers are quite small. Air India has a total fleet size of 33 aircraft; Indian Airlines is somewhat larger, being the size of Singapore Airlines with 62 aircraft. Alliance Air, a wholly owned subsidiary of Indian Airlines has 14 aircraft. Among the private airlines Jet Airways has 41 aircraft, Sahara 19 and Deccan Air 5.

Airfares in India are among the highest in the world.

To the extent that airlines cannot use the least cost combinations of aircraft types to carry passengers and freight, the costs of operating existing networks are higher than they otherwise might be (technical inefficiency). Further, they may be prevented from flying the optimum sized and configured network (allocative inefficiency). Thus, costs may be reduced as airlines are able to operate the right aircraft at the right frequencies on an existing route.