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?Smaller cities crucial for aviation sector?
DESPITE INFRASTRUCTURE problems, the aviation industry has an extremely bright future in India, observed Parvez Damania, the former director of Sahara and Kingfisher airlines.
DESPITE INFRASTRUCTURE problems, the aviation industry has an extremely bright future in India, observed Parvez Damania, the former director of Sahara and Kingfisher airlines.
Quoting the latest figures of Airports Authority of India, he said there had been a 48 per cent jump in domestic passengers during April-June 2006. “This exemplifies the fast track on which the aviation industry is flying.”
Outlining the importance of cities like Bhopal, Indore and Jaipur on the aviation map of the country, he said, “While the metropolises are getting over-saturated, it is these smaller centres which could emerge as ‘growth centres’ for sprucing the aviation sector. Boeing, for instance, is putting up a huge maintenance centre at Nagpur,” Damania, who is the chairman of the Flying Cats’ advisory panel, told the Hindustan Times.
He was here as chief guest for the launch of the Bhopal centre of Flying Cats — the airhostess training school, which caters to grooming, aviation, tourism, travel and hospitality..
Conceding that infrastructure bottlenecks had hampered full exploitation of the sector, he said the present ministry was doing a ‘good’ job. “We are, however, still grappling with the problem of parking space.”
“Competition was healthy. The ‘fare war’ has spiralled the number of flight travellers,” he observed when asked on the stiff competition amongst the private players in the aviation field.
Damania, however, refused to comment on how the low fares offered by the airlines had affected their profitability charts. “Private airlines in India, particularly Kingfisher, are doing extremely well. Despite the load factor they are making a constant endeavour to bolster services.” Enumerating the salient features of Flying Cats, he said the idea was to complete 20 centres in the first year. As many as 17 are already operational, he added.
“Our recruitment graph is on a high trajectory and there is a huge demand for staff. While recruiting staff, we don’t just look for glamour but a complete package including good communication skills and willingness to work, because it is a serious profession and requires balanced and mature persons”.
