Business aircraft makers can hope attitudes will change as India Inc gets more comfortable with BizAv.

A prophesy gaining Ground Globally is that the 21st century belongs to Asia. What it actually refers to is the growing economic prosperity in the Asian region. With China registering double-digit growth in its GDP year after year and India close on its heels, the two biggest countries in the Asian region are transforming into economic power houses. China is soon going to be the second biggest economy in the world after the US and India is seen inching towards the third spot with predictions that it would overtake Japan in due course of time. When one looks at the Asian landmass as a whole, stretching from the Arabian Peninsula in the west, to Southern Asia and through South-East Asian countries on to the Far East including Japan; the overall picture appears to be positive and full of promises. The Asian region is throwing up more companies than ever before to be counted in the global top bracket such as Fortune 500. Similarly, the number of high-net worth individuals (HNWIs) in the Asian region is increasing exponentially by the day. Globalisation of businesses has also meant much greater requirement of air travel. While this has generated a spurt in the civil aviation business which is witnessing a much higher growth rate in Asia than the rest of the world, it has also given a fillip to the business aviation sector to fulfill the travel needs of the corporate houses and the HNWIs. If the civil airlines business is growing fast, the business aviation including air charter services are growing even faster.

How does air charter differ from aviation that is scheduled? The answer is: in many ways. But from a user’s point of view the three key factors are flexibility, efficiency and, of course, privacy. One might need charter services anytime. For example, one could be a corporate level travel planner trying to get a group of senior executives from Delhi to Mumbai safely and with little downtime. Or, one might need to shift a seriously ill patient from one hospital to another. Or, one might be in charge of moving a film/TV crew and equipment to a shooting locale/covering an important happening event. One could just be trying to move one’s family from say, Kolkata to Bangalore as quickly and comfortably after a change in assignment requiring relocation. Without air charter travel one wouldn’t have the freedom to organise trips which are built around one’s needs. The only dilemma is, should one splurge on air charter services for this reason alone when scheduled airlines services provide a cheaper solution? There are many other factors to ponder over.