Why are Private Airlines Dominating the Indian Aviation Market and What Can the Government Do?

Did you know that the first Indian to have an airplane isare primary reasons why the domestic market is
the young Maharaja of Patiala, Bhupinder Singh? In factweaning from government carriers.
he is considered by many, in 1910, to be one of the firstPeople want good, affordable and comfortable travel.
Asians to fly. Since then the evolution of Airlines haveAnd they are ready to pay a price for it. Wouldn't the
been rapid in India, starting with JRD Tata beinglargest backed up airlines actually want to leverage
awarded the first Indian Pilot license for flying histhat to gain share? All is not lost, I think the new
Gypsy Moth.aviation minister is aggressive enough, but there is a
Aviation in India didn't take a large part of the travel tilllong way to go. My quick 3 tips to help them on their
around the 1950's when we had the Indianway?a) Improve service of ground stuff, the customer
Government stepping in and publicizing andis your most important asset.b) Improve your online
consolidating many individual players to jet start Indianbooking facilities with the faster group of net savvy
Aviation. Thus began Indian Airlines and their operationspeople, it is important that you should cater to their
on 1st August 1953.needs of by passing agents and booking online.c) Fly
Currently today though the market share is dominatedmore often and at cheaper rates through the most
by private players in the market. Private airlines hold 60important business domestic routes. It helps to help
percent of the market share. It was aided with allowingpeople fly at convenient timings.
private carriers to allow air taxi operations. But what isThis really isn't rocket science to cater to the customer
the real reason behind people preferring this to thefirst and make sure that their needs are important.
Government run operations? In my opinion, I would citeTaking tips from the aggressive domestic players and
two main factors.using their large financial backing should help a is India's
The first would be the inventive ways of Airlinesleading travel meta search engine that offers users
competing and offering better fares and privileges tothe absolute cheapest rates they can get by
the user, thus allowing for a wider choice and anaggregating from many websites. Their services
affordable one. The second would be the defunctinclude Flights, hotels and buses which were recently
operational services of the Government. While theylaunched. With their clean interface they have
spend a lot of money in acquiring newer airplane jetsredefined travel search to make it smarter, easier and
they haven't concentrated their efforts on the flyingfaster.
experience. Slack attitudes at expansions and service