Fasten seat belts – now!

Indian Aviation faces its toughest test in 2020. It has to contend with rising in operating costs from jet fuel and import of aircraft spare parts and consumables and the differential aviation fuel pricing in each state, to name just a few. MARK D MARTIN dreads the return of the 1980s scenario when air travel was an Emergency or Imperatively Urgent Travel Medium and rail the first choice for the middle class Indian.

- MARK D MARTIN

Frank Zappa once said, “You can’t be a real country unless you have a beer and an airline.” India has five even though a ‘beer airline’ shut down a few years ago. With Brent Crude Oil touching $82 in Market Trade, the Indian Rupee breeching 73 and the unexplainable inclusion of Aviation Turbine Fuel (ATF) as a dutiable item by the Modi Government last year with no roll back – poor Frank must either be rolling in his grave or give weed another shot because should this phase continue we might end up becoming a Not-So-Real-Country that’s left with only beer! And we just lost Jet Airways for good.

Indian aviation’s possibly entering one of its toughest phases ever – more intense than what we saw in 2008 and the government does not seem to be doing anything to soften the blow. The inclusion of GST into aviation and airline services raised the effective “access-to-aviation” cost up two years ago; and add to that the rise in fuel and currency; and an unwanted import duty inclusion last year raises the cost of travel in India especially when one travels most during the Navratri, Durga Puja, Dussehra and Diwali.