@blackbird...
I laud your positive thinking.
the problem is that the sector is over regulated, over taxed and lacks infrastructure.
until these 3 things change, it will keep limping along.
if they stop thinking of it as a rich peoples transport and a cash cow, and open it up, then we might see some action, but until then, indigo or not, more regional operators or not, indian aviation is going to keep struggling.
Regarding indigo and atr, i have already posted my views above.
why is govt forcing existing guys to change their business model.
let regional guys open up with 2-3 planes and serve the smaller airports. allow fdi in the airports all over the country and earn revenues by commercializing the real estate at these airports.
allow fdi in new regional carriers too.keep them out of new national carriers if you want to prevent overcapacity.
open up the sector to competition and it will explode with revenues for the govt in the form of taxes from the business generated and income taxes of all the people that will get employed.
the Indian railways is saturated and cannot move all the people that need to travel.
low cost regional travel will take off if it is enabled and encouraged.