The Hindu Business Line : ‘Aviation sector needs better infrastructure, HR training’

On the count
Passenger traffic projected to grow to 60 m by 2010 (30 m).
To meet addition of 400 aircraft, industry needs 4,000 pilots.
Will also need 3,000 engineers, 1-lakh support staff.

Our Bureau

Hyderabad, Dec. 19 Top honchos of aircraft manufacturers Boeing and Airbus, and airline carrier Indian Airlines, on Wednesday expressed the need to shore up human resources training and infrastructure to sustain the current rate of over 30 per cent growth in India’s aviation sector.

The Indian aeronautical education programmes have mainly concentrated on aircraft design and aero dynamics all these years.

However, with the growing demand for new breed of trained professionals, they feel the necessity to concentrate on airline management, airport management, and avionics along with technical training programmes like MRO (maintenance, repair and overhaul).

Senior professionals from the aviation sector in the country and experts from the US had converged on Wednesday at a one-day interactive meeting on ‘Industry Perspective of Aviation Education in India’ hosted at the SNIST-Vaughn College of Aeronautics and Technology here.

Big potential

The Managing Director of India operations at Boeing, Mr Larry Coughlin, said: “There is huge potential in the market here as demand for air travel increases. However, we believe there is need to improve the infrastructure to support a high growth rate the sector is currently witnessing.”

Efforts are on to develop projects under the public private partnership model in India, which is paving way for new airports at Hyderabad and Bangalore, restructure of existing ones at Delhi and Mumbai and possibly creation of two more new airports in New Delhi and Mumbai.

The Managing Director of Airbus, South Asia, Mr Aajay K. Mehra, said that the passenger traffic is projected to grow from 35 million to 60 million by 2010 and 150 million by 2020. Of the 1,000 aircraft ordered at the Paris Airshow, 400 were booked by Indian airliners.

A fleet addition of such a large magnitude over a four year period would require skilled people with new capabilities who also understand new aviation industry regulations.

Changing times

The Executive President, Indian, Mr Sunil Kishan, said that the aviation industry is going through unprecedented change. From a situation where ground handling was managed by airlines on their own, it is now shifting to a situation where a common company would take care of ground handling services.

He cited the venture between Singapore Airlines and Air India that would manage ground handling in Hyderabad and Bangalore airports.

The former CEO of Airbus, North America, Mr Claude Kizer, said that rarely do competing manufacturers Airbus and Boeing agree on issues and they believe that the airline industry is poised to grow three times within 20 years where India, China and the region would play a lead role.

Pilots needed

Capt S.N. Reddy, Advisor to Government of Andhra Pradesh on aviation industry, said that India has become an importer of pilots from a situation where it once used to send its pilots abroad for jobs.

To meet the projected addition of about 400 aircraft, India would require about 4,000 pilots, 3,000 engineers, a minimum of 8,000 cabin crew and about one lakh support staff. All of them would need specialised training.

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