If you Google the top 10 busiest airports in the world, 7 out of 10 are in China, Guangzhou International Airport being at the top. But this wasn’t the case 10 years ago as the majority of the busiest airports existed in the United States and Europe. 3 Chinese airlines have also entered the list of the top 10 largest airlines in the world. Analysing this growth in China’s Aviation Sector gives us an idea of where India is heading.
The main reason for China’s tremendous growth in this sector is the change in Demographics that is a significant percentage of the population is moving from lower-middle class to upper-middle class, which means millions of people can afford Air Travel and also Budget airlines are also playing a major role in catering to this huge demand with economical prices. India always plays catch up with China and even here it seems the same, it’s up to the Indian government and Airlines on how soon to close this gap.
As of 2020, India has 153 Operational Airports, and around 12 Crore Passengers, which is low for a country with a population of 140 Crores. However, this number is going to grow significantly in the upcoming years for the following reasons.
• With the Emergence of Budget Airlines with economic prices, Airlines in India today are no longer focusing on upper-class niche passengers. Major players like Indigo, and Air India are engaged in price wars where ultimately customers are winning.
• Just like in China, the standard of living of people of India is improving and at a healthy pace, meaning more people will afford air travel. For example, the difference in prices between first-class Ac ticket prices on a train and economy class in-plane is reducing in fact, with proper use of booking it can go lower.
• Indians value time a lot these days. A 3-day train journey can be covered in a 3-hour flight, which means a person can spend extra 2.5 days at the job and earn more than the excess he paid for the flight journey.
• The inefficient rail system in India is contributing majorly to the increase in the market share for airlines. Efforts are made by the government in launching high-speed trains and also modernizing existing trains and stations. The recently concluded budget announced launching 400 Vande Bharath Trains (these run at a speed of 16080kmph). Currently, there are just 42 Vande Bharath trains operating and the under-construction Bullet train project would take another 6 years for completion, meaning the population has to still depend on the Airlines
• Privatization of airports is helping airports work with better efficiency and the quality of services provided is unprecedented. The Centre has so far privatized 6 airports and this number is set to only grow
- India currently has 153 operational airports and this number is set to only grow, currently, all Tier 1 and most Tier 2 cities are having a functioning airport, but the issue is connectivity. With the increase in Domestic Travel, these airports will be used to their potential.
Of course, the list Is not exhaustive and there are many other obstacles to the growth of this industry, mainly increasing fuel prices, the emergence of work from home has reduced the need for travel, and the airline industry is the first to get impacted whenever there is a Covid outbreak, bad customer services, safety concerns due to frequent technical failures etc.
Nevertheless, the future is still bright for this industry and I would put my money on it (Literally), here are some of the Indian airline stocks you can buy right now
1. Interglobe Avi ( Indigo)
2. Spice Jet
3. Jet Airways
4. Global Vectra
The article is only towards informational purposes and should not be taken as an advice, what so ever.
Nishchal Mallya 
Gaurav Prabhu 
Varun Shenoy 
