Domestic air travel in India is still at it's nascent stage. As always let's start with educating ourselves with some facts about what is the current situation of air travel in India.

Market share:

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Source [1]

Future promise

More planes

The news like Air India buying around 500 airplanes are very promising for a good future. [2]

With more planes and Air India consolidating it's market share by merging Vistara and Air Asia into it's portfolio, it would take a very commendable second place. And with more flights added to it's arsenal, we will see some quality competition in the Air Travel space.

More airports

And the government has also prioritised building airports.

India is to get 80 new airports in five years. [3]

Official sources said the number of operational airports in the country has almost doubled from 74 to over 140 since he[Modi] took over in 2014.[3:1]

Not a political statement, but if you build infrastructure you get my vote. I've always believed that when you want to enable pedestrians to use the sidewalk, then build it and keep it clean. People will automatically use it.

Personal rant

Indigo is the clear winner and with my travels in India. Indigo felt like the most professional and uncomplicated one among the lot. They had clean flights and the staff were uncomplicated. Things seemed to work well, be it the app or the connections.

I am not a big fan of all inclusive travel for domestic flights, as the maximum flights that I've taken was for 2 hours and despite Indigo being a no-frills airline, I was able to pre-order some food. Fwiw, the food was decent, however it was no cooked meal, it was a ready to cook packaged food. But hey, it's airline food. So it's all shit anyways.

The airports are however booming, and thanks to the privatisation of the airports, we are able to good looking airports coming up now. Want more proof, compare the Chennai airport to the Bangalore airport. The Chennai airport honestly stinks of the carpet when you land there and the Bangalore airport is far better in comparison. The Delhi airport which I usually visit when going to India was also superior to the Chennai one. The worst among the lot was Coimbatore for me, as it feels stuck in late 90s with an actual ridiculous figurines that look like Golu bommais in the Airport.

Personally, I would love to see a direct flight from Germany to Coimbatore. I'm sure that ain't happening in the near term, but I'll be happy to have a more flights between Delhi-Coimbatore, Mumbai-Coimbatore and Bengaluru-Coimbatore.

Bottomline, future looks promising and it's a space worth watching keenly.

Sources:

  1. https://www.statista.com/statistics/575207/air-carrier-india-domestic-market-share/ ↩︎

  2. https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/air-india-agrees-buy-250-planes-airbus-2023-02-14/ ↩︎

  3. https://www.timesnownews.com/auto/india-to-get-80-new-airports-in-five-years-article-96150523 ↩︎ ↩︎

Airtravel in India

Domestic air travel in India is evolving, marked by Air India's acquisition of 500 planes and consolidation of market share. The government's initiative to build 80 new airports in five years reflects a promising future, with Indigo standing out as a preferred choice amidst growing competition.