Overcapacity in India

[shon7]

With so many new entrants looking forward 10 years what does the Indian market look like?

Seems like within 5 years there will be overcapacity. What are the Bankruptcy laws over there -- cause mergers and BKs are probably inevitable

[rsoman]

India

Distances are huge. And journey times by alternatives (train/bus) are too long. For instance - Trivandrum to Bombay takes 2 hours by Air but something close to 40 hours by surface.

Disposable income levels as well as credit card penetration are going up. Okay - may be still insignificant in terms of the total Indian population, but remember that with the base being so vast (India is the second most populous country after China), even 1% can be a HUGE amount.

For those wary of using credit cards (or do not have them), Airlines are using alternate distribution models. Air Deccan for instance uses Reliance Telecom (one of the leading mobile players) outlets to sell their tickets, Go Air, another start up, uses local cyber cafes etc.

Right now high costs are a dampener. But fuel costs are always cyclical and another trough can be expected soon. Also increasingly more and more Indians are going abroad for flight training and soon the crewing situation should start to improve.

Infrastructure is an issue, but again things are changing. In another two years BLR and HYD will have new airports. Meanwhile government has already announced incentives to decongest main airports. Night parking charges for instance have been slashed by half in "non metro" airports and Jet is already basing an aircraft at Pune from 01 Feb.

So things dont look too bad.

[GlueBall]

No overcapacity yet and not anytime soon. The country has over a billion people and as someone had already mentioned: Travel by road or train is a nightmare by western standards.

Yes, you can buy your ticket online with a credit card at Air India Express, Indian Airlines, Jet Airways, Kingfisher.... :ooh: