It will take a lot of tinkering to stay afloat

The financial turbulence being faced by SpiceJet, within two years of the Kingfisher Airlines’ (KA’s) collapse, puts the spotlight on the infirmities in the aviation sector and also questions our ability to address them.
When Air India (AI) and Indian Airlines (IA) were the only two operating airlines, their ‘unsatisfactory’ performance was attributed to government ownership, mismanagement and unproductive staff. Privatisation and professionalisation were advocated as a remedy, overlooking the real causes. Now that we have several private airlines biting the dust, we must address those systemic weaknesses.
The two national carriers, which were in business since 1953, should have provided the expertise to the sector when the skies were opened up. But that did not happen, giving rise to a mistaken notion that expertise was not needed to steer the sector.
The government kept on appointing IAS officers to lead AI when the need was to get experienced men from the sector. Unsurprisingly, India did not have a comprehensive civil aviation policy for decades. To show that the aviation sector was doing well, the government showed growth in the number of passengers. This is nothing short of deception because it was a consequence of the growing middle class and low fares.
This happened despite many private airlines getting expat CEOs/COOs. If they failed to place their airline on a financially sound foundation, it was because of systemic weaknesses in our operational environment. Their efforts were restricted to sales tax levied on air turbine fuel (ATF), which was one issue, but not the main cause of high fuel pricing.

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