Private aviation in India on full thrust.

It's no brainer that with the increasing Indian presence in the Forbes billionaires list and a strong growth horizon for the Indian corporate houses, the private aviation services industry in India is all set for a grand take off. While the non scheduled flights and charter services are quite common in the matured economies, India has just started showing some serious interests towards that. Though a chartered flight costs a bit more on the ticket price, for those who realized that time is money, this is nothing compared to what they loose waiting endlessly for the final boarding call, at the transit and at the baggage carousel.

Major aircraft manufacturers cater to these needs in all sizes. Elite business tycoons own larger airplanes like Vijay Mallaya's A319 corporate jet while Mukesh Ambani has recently gifted his wife with an A320 for her last birthday. Well we haven't ordered an A380 for private use yet which is not a big thing in the middle east. A Saudi prince (If I'm not wrong) has ordered the world's biggest airliner for his personal use while he already owns a Boeing 747. I wonder if he has a slightly bigger family.

The majority of these executive jets fall under the 6 to 20 seat segments which is catered by a variety of aircrafts like Embraer, Bombardier, Dassault, Cessna, Hawker etc.,. Currently there are around 180 private jets in India in this category and that is expected to grow to 500 in the next five years. So, it's no surprise that these manufacturers are making a beeline to India. Till now the lack of an MRO (Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul) facility in India for these jets has been a major hindrance for the growth of these jets as the owners have to fly their jets overseas for any maintenance. But the demand should force the manufacturers to do something about this if they want to make the best of their sales. In fact the Hawker Beechcraft Corporation (HBC) has taken the lead and tied up with the InterGlobe to setup a support facility in Delhi for the Hawker Beechcraft air planes.

Other than the individual owners there is a list of players operating charter flights for various clients. Captain Gopinath's Deccan aviation is well known in this field and the luxury hotel chains like Taj and Oberoi group of hotels also have their own fleets to serve the needy clients. While the charter services have been there for some time, the concept of the fractional ownership of the executive jets just picking up. This is quite common in the developed nations and the top investment guru Mr Buffet owns one of these companies. This is quite handy for those who do not want to spend $40 million (or so) to own a jet and more on maintaining them. They can just be a fractional owner by just paying a fraction of the cost to the company that maintains a fleet and have them available for their use at any time. The BJETS, founded by Mr Bala Ramamoorthy has setup shop in India in association with the Tatas provides this model to the Indian customers. While their corporate office will be in Mumbai their flight operations will be out of the new Rajiv Gandhi International airport, Hyderabad and also from Singapore. They've signed the single biggest order ever in Asia for a fleet of 50 brand new jets worth over US$600 million (S$840 million).

Given the good economic prospects these developments just exposes the tip of the iceberg. We'll wait and watch the action.