Aviation in India, broadly divided into military and civil aviation, is the fastest-growing aviation market in the world according to the

International Air Transport Association The International Air Transport Association (IATA ) is a trade association of the world's airlines founded in 1945. IATA has been described as a cartel since, in addition to setting technical standards for airlines, IATA also organized tariff ...

(IATA). The hub of the nation's aviation manufacturing industry is at

Bangalore Bangalore (), officially Bengaluru (), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Karnataka. It has a population of more than and a metropolitan population of around , making it the third most populous city and fifth most ...

which has a 65% share of this economic sector since 1924. The government's

UDAN ''Ude Desh ka Aam Naagrik'' (Hindi for "Let the common citizens of the country fly"), known by its acronym ''UDAN'' (Hindi for "flight") is a regional airport development program of the Government of India and part of the Regional Connectivi ...

(regional connectivity scheme) is driving the growth of civil aviation and aviation infrastructure in India.

History

Tata Sons' Airline Timetable Image, Summer 1935 (interior)

The first commercial aviation flight in India took place on 18 February 1911. It was a brief demonstration flight of about 15 minutes from the United Provinces Industrial and Agricultural Exhibition in

Allahabad Allahabad (), officially known as Prayagraj, also known as Ilahabad, is a metropolis in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.The other five cities were: Agra, Kanpur (Cawnpore), Lucknow, Meerut, and Varanasi (Benares). It is the administrat ...

, across the Yamuna River to

Naini Naini (also known as Naini Industrial Area) is a satellite neighborhood and a twin city of Prayagraj in Prayagraj district, Uttar Pradesh, India. By the 1950s Naini was established as the chief industrial area of the city. History Naini had a ...

, a distance of . The aircraft, a Humber biplane shipped from England specifically for the event, was flown by French aviator

Henri Pequet Henri Pequet (1 February 1888 – 13 March 1974) was a pilot in the first official airmail flight on February 18, 1911. The 23-year-old Frenchman, in India for an airshow, delivered about 6,500 letters when he flew from an Allahabad polo field ...

and carried 6,500 pieces of mail, making it the first official airmail service. Regular air mail was not established until two decades later, notably by J. R. D. Tata, who was awarded a contract to carry mail in 1932 and founded an airline which grew to become

Air India Air India is the flag carrier airline of India, headquartered at New Delhi. It is owned by Talace Private Limited, a Special-Purpose Vehicle (SPV) of Tata Sons, after Air India Limited's former owner, the Government of India, completed the sa ...

.
Beginning of Aviation in India - Bharat Rakshak Until 1990, international aviation was restricted to the four major metros of India, viz.,

New Delhi New Delhi (, , ''Naī Dillī'') is the capital of India and a part of the National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, Parliament House ...

(Palam),

Bombay Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second- ...

(Santa Cruz),

Madras Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...

(Meenambakkam), and

Calcutta Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, the official name until 2001) is the Capital city, capital of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal, on the eastern ba ...

(Dum Dum). With the Thiruvananthapuram Airport having upgraded to an international airport on 1 January 1991, making it the fifth international airport of India, international aviation was expanded to minor metros and non-metros across the country.

Civil aviation

India had the world's third-largest civil aviation market in 2017, with the number of passengers growing at an average annual rate of 16.3% between 2000 and 2015. It recorded an air traffic of 131 million passengers in 2016. Despite this growth, much of the country's aviation potential remains untapped.

IndiGo Indigo is a deep color close to the color wheel blue (a primary color in the RGB color space), as well as to some variants of ultramarine, based on the ancient dye of the same name. The word "indigo" comes from the Latin word ''indicum'', m ...

SpiceJet SpiceJet is an Indian budget airline headquartered in Gurgaon, Haryana. It is the second largest airline in the country by number of domestic passengers carried, with a market share of 13.6% as of March 2019. The airline operates 630 daily fli ...

and

GoAir Go First, founded as GoAir, is an Indian ultra-low-cost airline based in Mumbai, Maharashtra. It is owned by the Indian business conglomerate Wadia Group. In October 2017, it was the fifth largest airline in India with an 8.4% passenger ma ...

are the major carriers in order of their market share. These airlines connect more than 80 cities across India, and are joined by several foreign airlines in providing international routes. The Ministry of Civil Aviation is responsible for civilian aviation, through regulatory oversight by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA). National Civil Aviation Policy 2016 sets broad goals for safety and operations. The

(regional connectivity scheme) is a plan to develop a sustainable air network in over 400 tier-2 cities across India, with an estimated expenditure of per airstrip."UDAN: Govt links airlines' performance to award of more routes."
, Economic Times, 14 November 2017."Udan scheme round-II: Government receives 141 proposals for air routes."
,

Zee Business ''Zee Media Corporation Limited'' (abbreviated as ZMCL; formerly Zee News Limited) is the news broadcasting company of the Essel Group which is controlled by Subhash Chandra. The company is engaged mainly in the business of broadcasting of news ...

, 14 November 2017.

Infrastructure

The primary civilian aviation hub is

Indira Gandhi International Airport Indira Gandhi International Airport is the primary international airport serving Delhi, the capital of India, and the National Capital Region (NCR). The airport, spread over an area of , is situated in Palam, Delhi, southwest of the New De ...

in the

National Capital Region A capital region, also called a capital district or capital territory, is a region or district surrounding a capital city. It is not always the official term for the region, but may sometimes be used as an informal synonym. Capital regions can exis ...

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders w ...

. Since 2009, it has been the busiest airport in India in terms of passenger traffic and international traffic, and the second-busiest in terms of cargo traffic (after

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second- ...

). Since 2010, it has had the capacity to handle more than 40 million passengers per year, with a planned expansion for 100 million passengers by 2030. UDAN is assessing 486 existing airports for potential development.Participating unserved UDAN-RCS airports
,

Airport Authority of India The Airports Authority of India, or AAI, is a public sector enterprise under the ownership of the Ministry of Civil Aviation, Government of India. It is responsible for creating, upgrading, maintaining, and managing civil aviation infrastruct ...

, Nov 2016. Phase I of UDAN helped to raise the number of operational civil aviation airports to 131, a 34% increase over 20 months.State police to stand guard at Airports under UDAN scheme
, Economic Times, 2 December 2015. In addition, the

(AAI) granted in-principal approval to 19 new airports in December 2017. In September 2018, the Civil Aviation Minister said that as many as 100 new airports would be built in the next 10 to 15 years to meet the growing domestic demand. In 2015, there were 22 airlines operating in India, which add a total of about 50 airliners to their fleets each year. To support these fleets, several aviation-industrial parks are being set up, such as in Hisar,Vijay Mohan
Army’s helicopter repair hub likely to come up in Hisar
,

The Tribune ''The Tribune'' or ''Tribune'' is the name of various newspapers: United States Daily California *''Oakland Tribune'' * ''The Tribune'' (San Luis Obispo) *'' San Gabriel Valley Tribune'' Indiana *''Kokomo Tribune'' *'' Peru Tribune'' * ''The Trib ...

, 1 August 2016.Haryana to develop international airport at Hisar

TravelBizMonitor
, Retrieved in March 2016.
,

, 29 May 2015.

Gujarat Gujarat (, ) is a state along the western coast of India. Its coastline of about is the longest in the country, most of which lies on the Kathiawar peninsula. Gujarat is the fifth-largest Indian state by area, covering some ; and the ninth ...

, and

Chennai Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...

Military aviation

The

President of India The president of India ( IAST: ) is the head of state of the Republic of India. The president is the nominal head of the executive, the first citizen of the country, as well as the commander-in-chief of the Indian Armed Forces. Droupadi Murmu ...

serves as the ex-officio commander-in-chief of the

Indian Armed Forces The Indian Armed Forces are the military forces of the Republic of India. It consists of three professional uniformed services: the Indian Army, Indian Navy, and Indian Air Force.—— Additionally, the Indian Armed Forces are supported by ...

, with the

Ministry of Defence {{unsourced, date=February 2021 A ministry of defence or defense (see spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is an often-used name for the part of a government responsible for matters of defence, found in states ...

responsible for policy. The air arms of the armed forces are the

Indian Air Force The Indian Air Force (IAF) is the air arm of the Indian Armed Forces. Its complement of personnel and aircraft assets ranks third amongst the air forces of the world. Its primary mission is to secure Indian airspace and to conduct aerial w ...

(IAF), commanded by the Chief of Air Staff, and the

Indian Naval Air Arm The Indian Naval Air Arm is the aviation branch and a fighting arm of the Indian Navy which is tasked to provide an aircraft carrier based strike capability, fleet air defence, maritime reconnaissance, and anti-submarine warfare. The Flag Off ...

, Army Aviation Corps, and Indian Coast Guard aviation. The IAF is the world's fourth-largest air force. In 2015, ''

Flightglobal FlightGlobal is an online news and information website which covers the aviation and aerospace industries. The website was established in February 2006 as the website of ''Flight International'' magazine, ''Airline Business'', ''ACAS'', ''Air ...

'' estimated that it had 1,820 aircraft in service: 905 combat planes, 595 fighters and 310 attackers. The defence sector – consisting chiefly of IAF and state-owned

Hindustan Aeronautics Limited Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) is an Indian state-owned aerospace and defence (military), defence company, headquartered in Bangalore, India. Established on 23 December 1940, HAL is one of the oldest and largest aerospace and defence manuf ...

(HAL) – are developing numerous indigenous fighter aircraft and new technologies for the aviation industry. These efforts produced the

HF-24 Marut The HAL HF-24 Marut ("Spirit of the Tempest") was an Indian fighter-bomber aircraft of the 1960s. Developed by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), with Kurt Tank as lead designer. The Project Engineer from HAL was George William Benjamin. It ...

and HAL Tejas supersonic fighters.

References

External links

{{Portal bar, Aviation, India, War Indian Air Force