Raining Airplanes

Desi Fun(da)
I've been fascinated with airplanes ever since I was a kid. My first calling was to be an IAF pilot but well as they say "shit happens" and as I add "only to me". We travelled a lot by Indian Airlines from Bombay to Mangalore and enjoyed it. Now it looks like the situation faced by the TATA's in the early 70's has reincarnated itself in 2005. With the liberalization of the skies we are seeing a ton of new entrants each with the tag of 'low-cost carrier' on them. Recently at the widely popular Paris Air Show 50% of orders received in the civil aviation segment were from Indian companies. Nearly 250 planes, now aint that dandy.

But just some food for thought for these airlines:
1. Each airplane needs 5 pilots to stay functional
2. Airplanes need handling facilities and hangars, both of which are a bit scarce in homeland
3. Aviation fuel prices have recently been northbound
4. Average price of a A320 is a cool $50million
5. Kingfisher airlines has orderes 3 A380s. No airport in India can handle this aircraft yet (or in the forseeable future)

Now some food for thought for probable investors:
1. Air travel in India is about 2-5 million passengers/year
2. Train travel in India is about 15 million passengers/day (not a typo)
3. If the airlines can get prices to the levels of 2nd and 1st AC train travel there is no reason why air travel cant pick up.

Hey I am all for the aviation sector and having planes flying the Indian skies like bees if need be. But is the CAG and AAI and other bodies doing their bit to bring in this revolution or are a bunch of folks who are already rich going to get richer and me stuck paying more taxes ... again ? Is this going to be the second coming or second crumbling for civil aviation in India, only time will tell. Till then I am spending my weekends out of this crammed Bangaluru

Btw who the hell are these dudes investing these truckloads of money on buying airplanes asif they are buying some toys for their 2 year olds ? I've never heard most of these multimillionnaires before. Are Chidambaram and his IT department boys doing their job on these people. Because I just keep paying my taxes every month without any relief in sight Mr. PC.