Through the Looking Glass

Financial Express Aviation is amongst the worst-hit industries in Covid-19: what might change? Akhilesh Tilotia and Sunil Bhaskaran Before Covid-19 pandemic hit India and its aviation industry, airline traffic had been growing smartly for last many years: indeed, the industry had celebrated fifty consecutive months of double-digit growth in December 2018. Airlines in India had started transporting more people annually (~140 million) than the AC coaches of Indian Railways (~130 million) over longer distances and at comparable or lower prices. The UDAN scheme helped move the number of India’s operational airports to more than 100. When India hosted its first Global Aviation Summit in January 2019, the local industry was expected to continue growing smartly to a target of a billion trips a year in the forecast-able future. Given these expectations, tens of billions of dollars of aircraft were expected to come to India – plans for setting up a lease finance industry in