Air Travel in India

With India's economic and business growth, the percentage of traveling population is burgeoning. More and more Indians are traveling for both business and pleasure and everyone needs to save both time and money. As a result over the last few years, there has been a revolution in Indian Air Travel Business. In fact, Air travel in India has followed a metamorphosis over the last decade and this is largely attributed to the Open Sky policy introduced by the Indian Government. This policy basically allowed the private players to enter the arena of Indian Air space. As an immediate effect, Air Travel in India has indeed become cheaper (compared to how it used to be even 3-4 years back) and has become more affordable to the mass. And the number of people traveling by air has gone up drastically. However, it is apt to mention that the lucrative Air Fares offered by the so called Budget Airlines like Air Deccan, Spice Jet, GoAir, Indigo are gradually losing its shine & is failing to convince the Indian Middle Class towards air travel. One of the major issue has definitely been the price of Aviation Fuel, which in India have gone up quite fast over the last year or so. And Jet fuel prices being the major factor determining air fares (accounting for almost 25% of the cost of air travel), any hike in aviation turbine fuel prices immediately impacted airline operations. Of late the Government of India also introduced an Airport Traffic Congestion Charge...which also got transmitted to the end customers, resulting in another level of air fare hike.
Apart from regular fare hikes, Indian Air Travel is also suffering from poor infrastructure across the country and even important Airports like HAL (Bangalore) fails to produce quality & effecient service to the air travelers. Adding to the suffering are the facts that Indian Ecommerce is still in its infancy & that leads to severe problem to Air Traveler who prefers buying tickets Online.

The major Airlines Operators in India:

Air Deccan: [http://www.flyairdeccan.net]
Established in 2003 by Captain G R Gopinath, it has stabilized itself as one of the most used Air Career for the Indian Middle Class. Unfortunately, very recently Air Deccan introduced a New Air Ticket Booking system, which ended up being a nightmare not only to the end users (where the system might show declined payment & won't issue a ticket...whereas in reality your card might end up getting charged), but also created a major problem to the Air Deccan administration.

Jet Airways: [http://www.jetairways.com/]
Jet Airways, which commenced operations on May 5, 1993, has within a short span of 13 years established its position as a market leader. The airline has had the distinction of being repeatedly adjudged India’s ‘Best Domestic Airline’ and has won several national and international awards.
Airline Code: 9W.
IATA Membership: Active Member and a member of the IATA Clearing House. Also a participant of the IATA Multilateral Agreement for Passengers and Cargo Traffic.

Fleet Combination (as of April 2007):

Boeing 737-700
ATR 72-500
Boeing 737-800
Airbus 340-300E
Boeing 737-900
Boeing 737-400
Boeing 737-800
Airbus 330-200
Boeing 737-800
Boeing 737-700
Boeing 737-800





Spicejet [http://www.spicejet.com/]
SpiceJet's new generation fleet of aircraft is backed by cutting edge technology and infrastructure to ensure the highest standards in operating efficiency. With maintenance support by KLM and state of the art technology from world leaders like Star Navigation, Russell Adams and Tech Log there will be no compromise on safety, reliability or on-time travel. The company has tied up with Navitaire the world’s renowned low-cost support for reservations and revenue management. E-booking and e-ticketing facilities are available online along with tele-booking.

Fleet:
SpiceJet has opted for new generation Boeing 737-800s. These are typically 189 seater aircraft with CFM56-7B24 engines, having a range of 3,060 nautical miles (5425 km).









View a list of Airports in India.