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Aviation History
1983
1983 - 0069.PDF
The Vayudoot expansion plan Dehradun run not made a landing, because of almost-nil vertical visibility. On several occasions the decision to go ahead with landing has been extremely marginal, but this is the nature of the Vayudoot operation, and this is why the airline needed very experienced pilots from the outset. "If we waited for our air ports to get built up, we'd never take off," says Capt Bhasin. The weather can prove a problem for Vayudoot now and again, but it will become much less of a problem if the air line can develop a company communi cations network at all of its stations. Vayudoot has to provide its own weather- reporting service, because no other authorities (including state Governments) are willing to. Vayudoot is expecting to obtain imminently a licence to operate a company frequency. When it does set up its own communications network, oper ational reliability will increase through the availability of better weather and pas senger information. Bhasin claims that Vaydudoot already has quite a good re liability record; problems arising through lack of information only really occur at five or six stations. Unlimited potential Vayudoot may only be small beer at the moment, but its potential for growth is almost unlimited. It could (and surely will) become the biggest third-level and commuter carrier in the world. It is cur rently carrying about 500 passengers a day, but Capt Bhasin and the Vayudoot Board believe that, even if the recession continues and the Indian economy doesn't boom (although it is still growing fast), the airline will be carrying 2,000 passengers a day by 1985. The airline flew about l,100hr in its 1981-82 financial year (its operation was confined to North-Eastern regions), but this year expects to fly 3,600hr, and this sort of expansion should continue through the foreseeable future. In its first 15 months of operations Vayudoot lost about $700,000, and its average load factor was about 22 per cent. In the first six months of this financial year, the airline lost another $300,000, and expects to lose about $600,000 for the 12 months. This loss will take into account the costs of starting up schedules to several new destinations; on many of its more established schedules Vayudoot is now nearly breaking even. Load factors are now above 60 per cent on most ser vices. "Vayudoot's biggest asset is the size of India's population," says Bhasin. "If we start a service, people will want to use it. We will always be able to fill aircraft." Bhasin is confident of Vayudoot's future—"The company will grow whether it makes a profit or not. It is very neces sary for the country. Its potential is tre mendous." Bhasin and Board member R. Prasad both believe that Vayudoot will FLIGHT International, 8 January 1983 become bigger than Indian Airlines in terms of the number of destinations it serves, and in the number of aircraft it operates. The airline has been allocated about $10-5 million for its development until 1985. Much of the near-term expansion of the network will be accomplished by taking extra turboprop aircraft from Indian Air lines. According to Bhasin, another five or six aircraft are available. But at least a dozen of the new destinations planned to be on-line by 1985 lie in difficult terrain, where airfields large enough to handle the HS.748 and F.27 cannot be constructed. For these destinations Vayudoot will need the new LTA, which will have a much shorter take-off and landing run. Bhasin hopes that Vayudoot will receive the first of its smaller aircraft in 1983, to begin operations to the most inaccessible new destinations. New routes will be added in the most economic way possible: some will be new spokes from a major hub, while others will be add-on sectors to existing route chains. Current plans call for Vayudoot to receive 45 LTAs by 1990, but this figure is flexible, and could well be exceeded if the airline expands faster than predicted. Vayudoot will buy its aircraft with capital supplied by its parent companies: as they are nationalised, the money should ultimately be reclaimable from the Government. Whether it loses money in its first several years is not of concern to the Indian Government: Vayudoot is meant to be a powerful social force bring ing more prosperity to the country's less developed areas, so the more viable desti nations it has the better. Opening up services to communities in areas of difficult terrain is a primary aim of Vayudoot's expansion. It is easy to see why. Simla is a famous hill-station in the Himalayan foothills north of Delhi- tourism brings in a great deal of revenue to the town and the surrounding area. 89
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