Study of aviation hubs

Abstract

India is currently the ninth largest aviation market in the world and is expected to be the third largest by 2020. It caters to about 117 million domestic and 43 million international passengers. Air traffic in India has consistently grown at a robust rate of 12% - 18%. To sustain such high growth, development of Indian airports as aviation hubs will be crucial. Aviation hub is an airport which is used as a transit point to get passengers to their destinations. It is part of a hub and spoke model in which passengers travelling between airports that are not served by direct flights change planes enroute to their destinations. For example, Dubai is an aviation hub for Emirates and Frankfurt for Lufthansa that collects passengers from nearby regions and pushes them off to onward destinations. Aviation hubs benefit airlines, airports and overall economy. They help airlines in reducing their operating costs due to economies of scale and also improve load factors and fleet utilization along with larger connectivity. They help airports in improving asset utilization by capturing diverse traffic markets and in building brand image of airport and community at large. They also help in socio-economic development of the region they are situated in. India, inspite of having world-class airports in Hyderabad, Bangalore and Mumbai, and the world's eighth largest terminal building at New Delhi international airport is still far from developing an internationals airport hub for carriers.