Sunday, December 31, 2006

THE YEAR THAT WAS/ Growing traffic, better airports

New Delhi: A massive growth in passenger traffic, mainly due to low fares and more number of planes on the Indian sky, marked an accident-free aviation scene in 2006, which also saw a botched Jet-Sahara takeover deal and the mega merger of the two state-owned airlines taking shape.
The year also saw the handing over of two major airports at Delhi and Mumbai to private sector-led Joint Venture firms for modernisation, despite protests by airport employees and Left parties. However, the roadmap for modernisation of Kolkata and Chennai airport was far from being finalised.
Air-India and Indian placed orders for 68 and 43 aircraft respectively, as did the private carriers for a large number of planes, which have already started arriving.
Major initiatives were taken to improve and enhance the aviation infrastructure, with the work on upgradation and modernisation of several of the 35 identified non-metro airports across the country beginning at a rapid pace.
In the face of high fuel prices hitting their bottomlines, all major carriers, including Air-India and Indian, formed the Federation of Indian Airlines (FIA), which several experts feared could lead to cartelisation in the aviation industry.
While terror threats abroad made air travel cumbersome due to restrictions on items that can be carried in hand baggage, fog, as usual during winters in Delhi and other northern airports, played havoc with arrivals and departures of flights though for fewer days than in the past.
A far worse scenario was witnessed at London-Heathrow where the airport was virtually closed with large number of flights being cancelled and others delayed.
25/12/06 PTI/The Hindu
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