India's Aviation Boom Needs Infrastructure And Manpower Boost: Scindia

While surge pricing was contained to June's peak season, infrastructure and manpower need to catch up, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Minister of Civil Aviation of India said in a press conference at the upcoming Navi Mumbai Airport on Saturday.

"(The) surge pricing was observed only in June due to unavoidable seasonality," the Minister said, highlighting that prices have fallen by 10-12% compared to the last season.

Price of aviation turbine fuel were slashed for three consecutive months, falling by 6% in November last year, followed by an over 4% cut in both December and January.

ATF prices saw their steepest ever hike on on Sept. 1 last year, rising by 14.1%, which came on the back of an 8.5% increase in the month of August.

The ministry identified sectors which had recorded the surge in pricing due to an effect of seasonality, and normalised capacity by increasing flight frequency in the regions affected within 15 days, Scindia said.

While technology, infrastructure, manpower and resources regarding air navigation system, CTN have always been cutting-edge, the minister further stated that the back-end infrastructure needs to grow to support the boom in civil aviation in the country.

Stating further measures being taken to support the growing industry, Scindia noted implementation of the GAGAN-based navigation system in places with, and without instrument landing system to pull in aircrafts using satellites, an increase in capacity of air traffic control officers by 33-45%, and increased Airports Authority staff hiring.