K Srinivasan
IN March this year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated 16 airport projects virtually during a trip to Azamgarh. The district is in East UP, one of the most backward and least developed regions of the state.
Air travel got a fillip there with five new airports inaugurated – as part of the 16 – located in the state. But the PM’s aashirwad, so to speak, was not just for completed terminals but included foundation stone-laying ceremonies for upcoming ventures.
Amongst the airports with new terminal buildings and completely new facilities that were inaugurated included Pune, Gwalior, Lucknow, Delhi (T1), Kolhapur, Jabalpur, Aligarh, Azamgarh, Chitrakoot, Moradabad, Shravasti, and Adampur. Simultaneously, foundation stones were laid for projects in Hubbali, Kadapa, Varanasi, and Belgavi.
Ambitious projects
Closer towards the end of 2024, two billion dollar mega projects will be inaugurated and operationalised in Jewar (Noida International Airport) and Navi Mumbai Airport. Both are ambitious greenfield projects – Mumbai will help relieve the pressure on the present Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport and Noida International Airport will hopefully give wings to UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s dream of giving Uttar Pradesh a one trillion economy.
For the record, the total investment in these 16 airports surpasses Rs. 14,000 crore.
The question that needs answers, viewing all this tearaway pace of development is simple: does the country have the bandwidth to accommodate all this expansion? Do we have the human resources that can manage all this growth? Do we have the operations personnel? Do we have the ground staff? The Hindu had a perceptive piece on this key issue: “Major Indian airlines and airports have been struggling with manpower shortage amid post-pandemic air traffic surge. India today issues 1100-1200 commercial pilot licenses (CPL) a year, with 30-40 per cent of India’s pilot training happening abroad. Experts estimate that the country will require about 2,500- 3,000 pilots in the coming year, but it is producing only 1/3rd of that number due to a lack of adequate infrastructure (flight schools and fleet for training) and flight trainers.
“The country has only a low single-digit number of full-fledged flight academies and lacks flight instructors to train young pilots, according to Y.N. Sharma, chief executive officer of Chimes Aviation Private Limited. Many flight training organisations (FTO) in India are shut owing to a lack of flight instructors, said Ravi Vikram Singh, managing director of Indian Flying Academy.’’
Trained pilots’ demand The other danger is what How Choon Onn, advisor of Changi Airport alluded to about even countries like Singapore “struggling with manpower shortage and looking for collaborations with peers, including India, to meet the demand.” What this would translate into is the best the and the brightest of Indian manpower moving to foreign shores – to Singapore, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Qatar and even Europe and onwards. Such is the demand for trained airport and airline personnel. In India, the aviation business will see upwards of 17 per cent compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) which means a shortage of pilots, engineers and personnel across the entire ecosystem.
Ordering a record number of aircraft is good for the aviation business. It brings a certain momentum to the industry, new airports do the same while also adding considerable economic heft to the region around their location. Unfortunately, there is a total mismatch between the new airports that are coming up, the aircraft that are being ordered and the manpower that is available or being trained on the ground.
Aviation infrastructure
That is a question that will continue to confront Indian aviation through the next 60 months as we see an aircraft and a half added to the overall fleet each month and closer to 50 new city pairs added to the overall network – nationally and internationally – each year. It is a humongous number. And do not forget, the country has the largest number of aircraft on order from any one country.
A five trillion economy deserves such a developed aviation infrastructure. The beauty is less than 10 per cent of Indians fly and there is still a huge potential that waits to be tapped. Without the human resources, though, it will be impossible to exploit this potential.
