Blue skies beckon Indian airlines in 2015

Ask SpiceJet Ltd chief commercial officer, Kaneswaran Avili, who is a former employee of Malaysian carrier Tiger Air, how it is to work in the Indian aviation sector, he had a one-word answer; "chaotic".
However, he goes on to add; "but things are getting better". Avili says what draws him to India is its untapped potential. "Currently, the sector is contributing less than 2% to the GDP; in developed countries like Singapore it is more than 15% of the GDP. So, you can gauge from this how much potential still lies untapped in the sector," he says.
And 2015 could well be a turnaround year for the sector, which has been experiencing turbulent weather over the last few years with all, except budget carrier IndiGo, in the red. Airline consultancy firm Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation (CAPA) India, has forecast Indianairlines to lose $1.4 billion in FY15.
Some signs of the weather clearing up are already appearing in the skies. To begin with, air passenger traffic has been consistently growing over the past few months. The statistics put out by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) shows that the number of flyers who took to the skies in November grew 14.5% compared with October. It was up over 9% compared with the previous year during the same month.
And the good tiding doesn't end there. Civil aviation minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju has been consistently hinting that the restrictive 5/20 rule, which requires carriers to complete five years and own 20 aircraft to starts flying abroad, may soon be scrapped as it makes no sense. This could open up the lucrative overseas market for domestic players with wherewithal to combat established players one foreign routes.

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