Blitz Bureau
NEW DELHI: TO say that the Indian aviation market has grown at a pace unmatched by any of the world’s major economies is to stress the obvious. That India also has the largest number of aircraft on order, apart from the United States – the world’s most mature aviation market – is also reiterating a fact. Also, the Indian aviation is expected to grow at this tearing pace for the next two decades is a reality.
Many years back, at a Ficci seminar, then-Civil Aviation Secretary Ashok Chawla, who was then dealing with an unprecedented growth of 15 per cent-plus year- on-year, remarked: “A 7-8 per cent growth is welcome, but a growth of 15 per cent is undesirable and unwelcome.” He was right; it meant a Herculean effort to expand air traffic services, invest and build world-class terminals in the shortest time possible, create city-side and airside infrastructure, and train a humongous number of youngsters for a life in the aviation business. Anyway, that is a hurdle that Indian aviation crossed long ago.
Frequent flyers
Let us just look at the numbers: in the mid2000s, India was a 40-50 million‑passenger market. The country is now pushing 200 million trips annually. Now, the point to be noted here is that these 200 million are trips, not specific individuals going on trips. It could be one individual having made 20 trips a year. After all, frequent flyers fly frequently. So the share of Indians who actually fly is much lower – maybe 6-8 per cent of the 1.43 billion Indians. Of course, if you calculate it by trips made, it is closer to 14 per cent. But that doesn’t tell you the story of how few Indians are flying despite the spectacular growth in passenger numbers.
That is an abysmally low number, virtually like scratching the surface. It also tells us about the potential and the possibility. What the 200 million numbers tell is that flying is no longer a luxury activity; it is a mainstream mode of mobility for India’s middle class, business travellers, migrant workers, students, and families. As one smart alec quipped, “‘the railway‑to‑runway’ migration”, once a possibility, is now a reality, and what we are witnessing is a structural shift.
Flying is no longer a luxury activity; it is a mainstream mode of mobility for India’s middle class, business travellers, migrant workers, students, and families
Embracing speed
There was a time when the overnight train in the 500-1,500 km sector was overbooked and unavailable for weeks because it was the cheapest and most convenient. Now the talk is different – time, not distance or price, is the new cash that dictates how one travels. A 14 hour train journey has now been compressed to 90 minutes, and Indians, by the millions, are embracing this speed and rush.
Nonetheless, one has to remember that with all this growth, there is a people problem – getting the right heads for the right jobs. And frankly, it is not just a shortage of people – there is, in fact, a deficiency of appropriately skilled individuals, trained correctly, possessing the right competencies for a contemporary, high-stress and high-octane aviation ecosystem.
Projections indicate that India will require more than 35,000 to 40,000 new pilots, 50,000 to 60,000 Aircraft Maintenance Engineers (AMEs) and Maintenance, Repair, and Overhaul (MRO) technicians, along with a minimum of 10,000 additional Air Traffic Control (ATC) officers as new airports are established and flight operations increase.
Rare magnitude
The expansion of airports alone will necessitate hundreds of thousands of ground staff, security personnel, terminal operations specialists, and customer service professionals, particularly as India progresses towards a network of 200 airports. The magnitude of this demand is unprecedented, as India is not merely increasing its fleet of aircraft – it is developing entire aviation systems: new hubs, new regional routes, new MRO corridors, and new training and safety infrastructures. The wider aviation economy – encompassing airlines, airports, MRO, cargo, logistics, aerospace manufacturing, and drone operations – may require over one million skilled professionals in the forthcoming decade. That is what confronts Indian Aviation today, and that is what Wings India 2026, Asia’s largest civil aviation event, will reflect upon, at Begumpet Airport in Hyderabad.
