THE GROWTH STORY
Civil aviation worldwide is driven by local or regional dynamics. Since World War II, regional aviation within nations’ aerospace boundaries has evolved in consonance with a nation’s regulatory and industrial progress.
PERCEPTIONS OF THE TERM
‘regional aviation’ vary across the aviation world. Geographies, demographics and advances in civil aviation within individual nations influence their definitions of the term. However, for the sake of some common ground for discussion, let us situate regional aviation at the lowest rung of the hierarchy. At the highest level of stratification would be located ‘international’ or ‘major’ airlines with aircraft of the largest size. These are usually wide-bodied; have more than one aisle; are sometimes equipped with an upper deck; and are generally deployed for trans-continental operations. The next rung is ‘domestic’ or ‘national’ airlines with single or twin-aisle aircraft with reach across their parent nation and possibly to neighbouring ones. Regional airlines occupy the lowest rung and serve to connect small towns and airports to a nearby hub, often feeding a major or a national airline and are thus frequently referred to as ‘ feeder airlines’. Typically, a regional airliner would be equipped with 100 seats or less.
In the US, an airline’s ranking is determined by its annual revenue. Major airlines are those with revenues of more than $1 billion (`5,500 crore). National carriers are those that rake in between $100 million (`550 crore) and $1 billion. Regional airlines occupy the space with revenues below $100 million annually. The US regional airlines are further divided into three categories; large regionals, which are scheduled carriers with $20 million (`110 crore) to $100 million in annual revenue and operate aircraft that can accommodate more than 60 passengers; medium regionals are those that operate on a smaller scale with revenues of under $20 million and often use only small aircraft. The third category, small regionals does not have a set revenue definition, but is usu- ally referred to as ‘commuter airlines’ operating small aircraft with fewer than 61 seats.
It should be clear from the preceding that tiny nations would probably have no need for regional airlines. A regional airliner or a feeder liner is a small airliner designed to fly up to 100 passengers on short-haul flights, usually feeding hubs from where larger carriers operate. This class of aircraft is typically flown by the regional airlines that are either contracted by or are subsidiaries of the larger airlines. Feeder liner, commuter and local service are all alternative terms for the same class of flight operations.
EVOLUTION OF REGIONAL AIRCRAFT.
Regional aviation evolved at two concurrent levels. Technological advances steadily served to increase aircraft range and seating capacity thus permitting carriage of ever larger number of passengers over longer distances. In the early days of aviation, almost every aircraft had a relatively short range and so, juxtaposed with today’s scenario, every airline was regional in nature. Thus a journey beyond the normal range of an aircraft necessitated flights with multiple legs. With the introduction of longer range aircraft, airplanes with limited range were relegated to the regional category and served to feed the newer and longer range airliners flying to airline hubs. On another level, demographical evolution of nations meant development of new cities and increasing disposable incomes; hence the need for short-range flights from metros to and among smaller cities. The growth of regional aviation spurred the development of airport infrastructure in smaller cities. However, as use of aircraft designed for long-range for regional flights meant suboptimum utilisation, to economise operations on shorter routes, airlines were generally unwilling to spend large amounts of mon-