India tops Asia-pacific commercial aviation
India’s commercial aviation market has seen a growth of 400% in the last 10 years.
In the global aviation market, India is leading in the Asia-pacific region’s growth story with regard to the commercial aviation market, a recent report titled “Indian Commercial Market Outlook” released by Boeing on Wednesday in New Delhi has revealed.
India has over 60% of the share of private consumption in the GDP in terms of the global aviation market, while the Asia-pacific region has about 55% of the share, according to the Boeing report. The report further states that the Indian aviation market which experienced a slump at the beginning of 2019, has already picked up pace and is forecast to grow at about 7.5% of the real GDP growth between 2020 to 2025.
The Asia-pacific region’s commercial aviation market is likely to grow at a little over 4% in terms of real GDP growth.
The airlines network has also been on the rise since the last 10 years and the commercial aviation market in India has witnessed a growth of 400% in the last 10 years. While in 2008, the weekly flights in India were just 1,118, it jumped to 4,501 weekly trips in 2018, according to the report.
Seeing this exponential growth in the Indian commercial aviation market, Boeing has forecast that air carriers in India will need 2,380 new commercial airplanes, valued at USD 330 billion, to handle the growing demand for air travel over the next 20 years and to operate and maintain the expanding fleet, operators are expected to spend $440 billion on aviation services, including ground, station and cargo operations, along with maintenance and engineering.
The last 10 years also witnessed a massive passenger growth in the Indian aviation market; since 2008, the domestic aviation passenger grew three times till 2018 and international passengers in India grew by 2.5 times and the Indian commercial aviation sector carried 184 million passengers in 2018 compared to 72 million in 2008.
Darren Hulst, Deputy vice president of Commercial Marketing for The Boeing Company, said, “It is impressive to witness the passenger growth in India. This market continues to be one of the fastest-growing in the world. Over the past decade, domestic air traffic has tripled, while international air traffic has more than doubled. And we see tremendous potential for even more growth as India’s middle class expands and more consumers are able to fly.”
Hulst further added that in the next few years, commercial operators will be seen expanding their networks to offer more direct flights domestically and also open new long-distance options for passengers.
According to Boeing’s research, the Indian aviation sector has seen the biggest growth in the LCC (low cost carrier) segment which has expanded six fold in the last 10 years.
In India, single-aisles will lead the demand for airplane deliveries comprising 87% of all new airplanes—to meet requirements for domestic network connections and service to new airports. Wide body airplanes will make up 13% of new airplane deliveries, helping to enable new long-range flights.
Over 60,000 employees have applied for Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS) in BSNL and MTNL, telecom secretary Anshu Prakash said on Friday.
Out of this, a little over 57,000 employees are from BSNL and around 3,000 from MTNL, Prakash said on the sidelines of a Department of Telecom (DOT) event.
He said the VRS is very attractively designed and has received “unprecedented” response from the employees.
The government’s overall target stood at
94,000 from both the public sector undertakings (PSUS), he said.
Last month the government had approved a plum Rs 69,000 crore revival package for BSNL and MTNL that includes merging the two loss-making firms, monetising their assets and offering VRS to employees so that the combined entity turns profitable in two years.
In all, nearly one lakh BSNL employees are eligible to apply for VRS out of its total staff strength of 1.76 lakh. The scheme will be open till 3 December.
BSNL has 1.76 lakh employees, of which some 1.06 lakh are over 50 years of age. The telco is keen that 80% of the employees should opt for VRS.
Employees above the age of 53.5 years will get 125% of their salary, which they could have earned in the balance period of their service.
Employees in the age bracket of 50 to 53.5 years opting for VRS will get benefit in the range of 80 to 100% of the remuneration to be paid in the balance period of their service.
For employees over 55 years of age opting for VRS, the pension will be commuted only when they attain 60 years of age (the current retirement age).
India has over 60% of the share of private consumption in the GDP in terms of the global aviation market, while the Asia-pacific region has about 55% of the share, according to the Boeing report.