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The meteoric growth of the aviation industry has opened up new skies for the business of airline catering.

The Indian aviation industry is going through a boom and its infrastructure is fighting hard to expand its contours to provide this growth with the new required space.

According to the Airports Authority of India, passenger traffic saw a jump of 25-30 per cent last year as compared to 2006, increasing the aircraft movements to an unprecedented level. What’s more, the airline business in India is growing at a rate of 50 per cent in the domestic sector alone, with LCCs (low-cost carriers) spearheading this growth.

Since the industry’s fulcrum, the passenger traffic is supporting this growth; the chances of this being a steady development are very strong. Besides this, all the allied services to the aviation sector are growing with it. Since in-flight catering is an area directly related to the growth of the aviation sector, its own growth is also directly proportional.

Says Murali Krishnan, General Manager, Ambassador’s Sky Chef, “In-flight catering has a good future. The aviation industry is growing at a good pace and with it the business of in-flight catering”.

What is this business?
The business of in-flight catering is not only about providing meals to airlines. Today most airline catering companies are performing the role of in-flight solution providers, providing the airlines with all that goes inside an aircraft, like newspapers and magazines, cabin cleaning, laundry, and so on.

But as far as beverages are concerned, the role of catering units differ from one to the other. While some limit their role to just providing storage and chilling facilities to the airlines, the rest not only store them but also buy them for their clients. Alcoholic drinks, however, are arranged by the airlines themselves.

Apart from all these principal activities most of these companies are also involved in other non-flight services, like managing airport lounges and restaurants. Though these services are not their chief operations, most of the big players are operating in them. Says Nowzer Dudhmal, Deputy General Manager, TajSats, “These make for moderate business, not like the hotels”.

The big players in the airline catering business of India are TajSats, a joint venture between the Taj Group of Hotels and Singapore Airport Terminal Services, The Oberoi Group, Ambassador’s SkyChef, Sky Gourmet and LSG Sky Chefs. These cater mostly to full-service and international airlines.

So, is it an opportunity?
According to experts, air traffic is expected to grow at the rate of at least 25% for the next 5-10 years, making aviation one of the fastest growing industries of the country. The number of airports presently operating in India is only 80, out of which only a few account for a major share of the total airline traffic. The government has plans to rejuvenate most of the non-operational airports by 2010 so as to evenly spread the existing load and also to make provisions for the increasing passenger traffic.

Driving this growth is the domestic sector of the country. According to industry experts, apart from full service airlines, low-cost carriers (LCCs), also known as no-frills airlines, are the major contributors to the growth that is being witnessed.

Low-priced airlines like Air Deccan, SpiceJet, Go Air, and Indigo Airlines, are not just offering low-priced tickets, but have also redefined the market for the full-service airlines. Not so long ago traveling by air was considered a privilege of the rich. But the advent of LCCs brought air travel down to the level of middle-class families and those residing in small cities.

A number of foreign airlines have also increased their operations at Indian airports to take advantage of the limited Open Sky policy of the Indian government. The proposal allows foreign carriers, already operating in India, to add to their passenger-carrying capacity during a specified period, by either introducing a larger aircraft or increasing the frequency of aircraft movement.

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written by buy jordans, November 18, 2010

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