The Fast-Growing Indian Aviation Industry – What Next for India?

There have been many positive developments in the India’s fast-moving civil aviation sector. The National Civil Aviation Policy (NCAP) has finally been put into place and India has emerged as the fastest growing aviation market in the world. Currently ranked ninth, India is predicted to rise to third largest within two to three years.

Passenger traffic has increased by 17.6 percent in 2015-16 and growth is being maintained in 2016-17, with traffic growing at 19.1 percent during the period April to November. According to AAI (Airports Authority of India), over the next two years, traffic is projected to grow at 14 percent per annum to reach 290 million by 2017-18.

This staggering growth has had a number impact on the numbers connected with the aviation industry in India:

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Introducing New Ways of Thinking for Hold Baggage Screening

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Airports are under increasing pressure to provide more efficient Hold Baggage Screening (HBS). Whilst the space and capacity available to airports remains fixed, the needs of passengers and airlines are growing as the number of passengers travelling through airports rises year on year.

AiQ Consulting have been able to work with several leading airport operators and contractors in order to improve Hold Baggage Screening at some of the world’s busiest airports. Our experienced team, along with our bespoke modeling tools and stakeholder management skills, has seen us recognised as an worldwide authority in baggage systems.

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Staggering figures from the Indian Aviation Industry, but can Airports Handle this Rise?

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India’s aviation industry is in need of some fast-moving and efficient solutions to tackle their growing airport capacity problems.  The region has seen exponential growth over recent decades, with the volume of passenger traffic trebling in the last ten years. In fact, the increase in passenger traffic between 2001 and 2011 was three times the growth that had been achieved in the previous 50 years. A similar increase is predicted over the next decade.

Most airports in India are coming within reach of their existing capacities, if they haven’t already, and the country urgently needs new facilities and airports to ensure that the network can keep up with demand. But why has India got such a constrained network of airports? And what can be done to ensure that capacity is not an issue?

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Is your airport ready for 2018? Changes to Hold Baggage Screening Standards

Departure boardAll airports and airport operators should be aware of the upgrade needed in order to comply with Hold Baggage Screening Standard 3, which comes into force in 2018. This framework, regulated by the ECAC (European Civil Aviation Conference), requires airports to achieve detection levels only provided by CAT (Computed Axial Tomography) type detectors.

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Will growth wait for the airport debate?

A few weeks ago Colin Matthews, the Chief Executive of Heathrow, wrote in the Telegraph about how the airport, and the UK’s export trade, is missing out on connections to growth regions while the debate about airport expansion rumbles on.

“To meet its potential, Britain needs to be connected with the regions where growth is surging ahead – and that means emerging markets in Asia, Latin America and North America…. Instead, Heathrow has been full for a decade and those routes are being handed to our hub rivals in Paris, Frankfurt and Amsterdam. Previous analysis shows our economy is missing out on £14bn a year in lost trade as a result, a figure that’s set to rise to £26bn by 2030.”

He argues that debate is centred around a ‘false choice’ – Heathrow or Gatwick, where in fact both airports have different roles within the UK’s aviation industry. The UK needs extra hub capacity, provided by Heathrow, in order to compete in future international markets.

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UK Airports – Rewriting the Future

Airport empty Can Storage SolutionAs the UK’s Airports Commission struggles to find a viable option for the much needed growth in the UK’s airports, AiQ Consulting have been finding new ways to tackle the much discussed lack of capacity.

The Airports Commission has ruled out almost all the options to increase UK airport capacity (with the exception of expanding Heathrow and Gatwick). Proposals to expand Luton, Stansted or Birmingham, build new airports at various locations around London, or create an orbital railway have all been dismissed, but what can airports do to ensure their business increases and passengers, airlines, ground handlers and more have an efficient, growing service?

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Get off to a Flying Start in 2014 with AiQ Consulting

Although we have had many years experience in the aviation industry, working with airports, airlines and other stakeholders to manage and improve capacity and processes, 2013 was launch year for AiQ. The year we brought all of our skills together into one consultancy that works with our clients to enhance their operation efficiencies, and realise the capacity they didn’t know they had.

This was increasingly important as discussion around airport capacity in the South East and the Davies Commission reached a fever pitch towards the end of the year. As businesses, politicians and the public alike debate what would be the best outcome, the strain on facilities in our airports continues.

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AiQ wants to Let Britain Fly

With a staggering amount of well-known companies and business leaders as signatories, the ‘Let Britain Fly’ campaign looks to make a real impact in the aviation industry.

Bringing together the UK’s business elite as a political force, the campaign aims to expand airport capacity in London and the South East to support jobs and growth. With Heathrow already reach full capacity and Gatwick and Stansted soon to follow suit, the organization believes that failing to act now to increase airport capacity will have a negative impact on the economy. They aim to build cross-party support to build new runways.

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The Runway Debate Rumbles On…

The debate over the runway capacity of the South East, and the demands that are to come in future years, has rumbled on these last few weeks after a speech from the head of the Airports Commission, Sir Howard Davies.

The Airports Commission has come to the “provisional conclusion” that extra runway capacity would be needed in the South East over the coming decades, and that to rely on existing runways would lead to “a distinctly sub-optimal solution”.

There will be excess demand, even taking into account regional airports and a conservative view of future aviation demand, which does point to the need for a new runway infrastructure in the South East.

AIQ welcomes these developments and are glad that the airport capacity issue is being reviewed. The Department for Transport’s UK Aviation Forecast in January 2013 has already found that demand for air travel is forecast to increase within the range of 1% – 3% a year up to 2050, with the major South East airports predicted to be full by 2030. Read More »

Handling Heathrow – the challenge for capacity

Heathrow CEO Colin Matthews gave a stark warning to the Airports Commission in July. Unless the UK raises its game by increasing capacity at Heathrow or creating another hub airport, it risks dropping out of the premier league of international connectivity all together. Read More »