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In India, two airlines are merging – symbolic for the country's aviation, which continues to set new records. Airlines have ordered hundreds of aircraft and new mega-airports are under construction.
“Our dreams take flight with the plane,” says an Instagram post from the Indian airline Vistara. “Let's slide towards a future where the sky is not the limit, but only the beginning.” The new future is Air India, the former state airline into which Vistara is now absorbed.
Air India is no longer a dusty state-owned company, but an aviation giant where the Indian Tata Group is in charge. Singapore Airlines, which owns a 25.1 percent share, is also on board with the new Air India.
The new Air India will initially have a fleet of more than 200 aircraft and offer connections to 90 domestic and international destinations. In the coming years, however, the course is clearly set for growth. New jets are delivered weekly, older aircraft receive completely new interiors, and Vistara's catering is now being expanded to Air India.
Gigantic expansion course
Just last year, Air India ordered 470 new aircraft from Airbus and Boeing, with a list price of around $70 billion – including a negotiated option for a further 370 aircraft. The new airline wants to become the top dog. 840 aircraft are expected to take off in the future, especially in the rapidly growing Indian home market.
And it's not just Air India that's taking off. Indian competitor IndiGo Airlines is also investing heavily in new aircraft. Orders from aircraft manufacturers are overwhelming. IndiGo Airlines has now ordered more than 1,000 new jets. This goes beyond all previously known standards in the aviation industry – these are historic orders for Airbus and Boeing, which ensure full order books there. And this is almost despite all the technical problems at the American manufacturer Boeing. Delivery of the ordered aircraft is planned for the next ten years. Provided that enough engines are built and the industry does not suffer any setbacks.
And then there is Akasa Air, India's youngest airline, which only started flying two years ago. At the beginning of the year, 150 Boeing 737 Max aircraft were ordered. This increases their order backlog to more than 200 aircraft, which are firmly planned for expansion plans.
Mega airport on a green meadow
But it's not just the airlines that are investing – India is also constantly building new airports. The airport abbreviation DXN stands for the new airport “Noida International Airport”, located around 80 kilometers from the capital New Delhi. In two and a half years, a huge second city airport was built next to the Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGI), virtually on a greenfield site. The opening is planned for the end of April 2025, with an initial capacity of 12 million passengers – comparable to Hamburg Airport. The major Indian project is being built from Zurich Airport.
“The project is designed to last 40 years,” explains Christoph Schnellmann, managing director at DXN Airport in an interview tagesschau.de. “The mission is not just to build an airport. The mission is to develop an airport and operate the airport for 40 years.” The prospects for growth are not only in Noida. “Air traffic in India has been growing incredibly quickly for 20 years. New Delhi needs new airport infrastructure.”
Capacity can be expanded quickly
We work day and night so that everything will be finished in just over six months. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi wants to open the gigantic airport personally. Everyone on the construction site is confident that the schedule will be met. “In the first phase of expansion, the airport will be designed for 12 million passengers per year,” says Nicolas Schenk, who is responsible for planning in Noida. “Over phases of further development, the airport will be expanded to accommodate 70 million passengers.” First of all. And adjacent properties have long since been purchased. Then the capacity could be doubled in no time.
The need for this seems to be there: the IGI city airport in Delhi reported around 75 million passengers last year. Capacity there is expected to grow to more than 100 million passengers in the next decade. In the past decade, the number of commercial airports in India has doubled – to more than 140 airports.
More competition also in international Business
The majority of the flight connections offered there are national flights. Noida is currently planning 90 percent domestic flights on the subcontinent. But the new Air India also wants to grow on land routes in the future. “Indian airlines lack non-stop connections abroad,” Air India boss Campbell Wilson said in a newspaper interview.
This means Lufthansa has new competition. CEO Carsten Spohr knows Wilson very well. After all, both airlines are members of the “Star Alliance” airline group. The competition is likely to become a lot tougher in the coming years. With all the new jets, Air India wants to expand its flight offerings to Europe and North America.
