BENGALURU: NAL has got permission to design 90-seater aircrafts and by 2026 these flights are expected to be operational to connect hilly, small towns and give a fillip to tourism as well, said Dr. Kota Harinarayana, Former Programme Director and Chief Designer, Tejas, Light Combat Aircraft.
Dr Harinarayana was talking at the International Conference on the Future of Aviation and Aerospace held in virtual mode by IIM Bangalore’s Office of Executive Education Programmes. “This is a great opportunity for international collaboration for OEMs,” Harinarayana added.
On the military aviation front, he said start-ups in the area of unmanned air vehicles are doing encouraging work in agriculture, defence, etc. Improvement in cargo revenue will not necessarily make up for the loss in passenger revenue, pointed Professor S Raghunath, Programme Director For the General Management Programme For Aviation and Aerospace, IIM Bangalore.
Conference Chair Raghunath said, "Given the semi-fixed nature of many airlines costs, there will be a challenge in terms of cash burn and there could be failures among medium and smaller airlines unless the government comes in to bail out their debt for equity."
Calling for a need to reinvent business models to focus on higher resilience, he said that Low-Cost Carriers (LCCs) are recovering faster than full-service carriers due to their reduced exposure to premium traffic, and less reliance on long haul routes and widebody aircraft.
“Lesser passenger footfalls will affect the level of retail consumption and therefore revenue generation in all international airports throughout the world,” Raghunath added. “Multiple regulatory agencies ion aviation are bottlenecks. The time has come to consolidate and create a single body to avoid working in silos and at cross purposes,” said Hari K Marar, Managing Director and CEO, BIAL, adding that preferential rates for aviation should be seen as a necessity to stimulate the sector.