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Despite economic crisis, airline industry will grow faster in Asia-Pacific region, says A-I chief

Air-India's Managing Director Michael Mascarenhas says that in spite of the recent currency and economic crisis in the Asia-Pacific region, the airline industry's growth rate would be higher than the world average at approximately seven per cent. China would also be a high-growth originating market at approximately ten per cent.

The total fleet, according to him, would more than double in the next 15 years, constituting an average capacity growth of approximately 4.5 per cent per annum and the active aircraft fleet size would grow from the present 10,000 to over 16,000 aircraft in the same period.

Air-India and other airlines of similar size would survive as intercontinental carriers but would have to undertake certain measures, he said, delivering the keynote address at the first convention of the Travel Agents Federation of India in Pune.

Mascarenhas said that Air-India and other airlines would have to improve the quality of their service in order to match and better the bigger airlines since quality has no relationship to size.

They will have to develop and unite their strengths to attract partners where both would benefit on a long-term basis and would have adequate negotiating powers vis-a-vis the bigger alliances, he said.

He noted that airlines should be run as a commercial enterprise.

Commenting on the future of the airline industry in the next millenieum, Mascarenhas said there would be a continuously strong growth in worldwide demand for air travel and passenger traffic as measured in revenue passenger kilometers would almost tripple, growing at an average annual rate of approximately five per cent.

The average capacity per aircraft would also increase from 180 seats to about 200 seats. This is clear from the fact that despite the advent of 400-seaters, the majority of world's aircraft would have a much lower unit size since it serves small domestic, regional and hub-and-spoke markets.

The world's airport and air traffic systems would have to accomodate an almost 85 per cent increase in the number of flights, he felt.

All in all, there would be a growing demand to develop a new type of aircraft larger than anything flying today, so as to prevent aviation infrastructure from being strangulated by the sheer growth in demand for more and more services.

Inaugurating the three-day conference, Maharashtra tourism minister Jagannath Patil called upon travel agents to exploit other modes of transport like sea route, the road and rail modes besides the air travel to exploit the potential of tourism in Maharashtra.

Maharashtra has 32 ''clean beaches'' along the 720 km coastal belt in the Konkan region and the travel agents should bring in more tourists to give a boost to tourism in the state which still remains untapped.

He said the state government had undertaken a Rs 800 million project in Ajanta-Ellora caves with the help from Japan and another proposal of Rs 1.8 billion is awaiting clearance from Japan, which has suspended aid after the Pokhran nuclear tests.

Similarly, another spot, about 80 km from Ajanta, a lake, whose water tastes both sweet and sour, is also being developed, Patil informed.

UNI