--- Philip Thomas <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > You are probably right about a bust following the > boom. In the U.S. (in the > 80s) and in Europe (in the 90s) airline bubbles have > been followed by busts. > Asia may not be very different during this decade. > > It is also true that everybody does complain about > India's pathetic aviation > infrastructure. But maybe once Mumbai and Delhi are > upgraded and the > Hyderabad and Bangalore airports come on stream -- > all by 2010 at the latest > if all goes well -- things may begin to look > different. --> Given the huge ramp up in capacity even before 2010, I suspect the upgrades at these airports may be too little too late. Besides, much of India lives outside these metros and I am not too sure if these airports are being upgraded. I think the bottlenecks that will result, will cause many of these airlines to crash (no pun intended) prematurely.
> Besides, a big part of the aviation bottleneck in > India may be due to the > military which controls 25 airports including Delhi > where one runway is > reserved for the Air Force and there are severe air > space restrictions. > There seems to be a persistent blindspot in aviation > circles including the > media regarding this point. An urgent highlevel > review and prudent > implementation may result in huge relief at airports > in a single stroke! --> Well, if one is keeping track of the purchases by the IAF, one will note that it is on a major purchasing spree as well. It will be acquiring around 150 Su-31 fighter bombers over the next few years along with an equal number of medium range fighter jets (either the Saab , Mirage 2000 or the F-16, not to mention a few hundred LCAs (if and when that takes off). Hence what we are witnessing here is a substantial increase in the IAF's capability, but is that being matched by an increase in its dedicated airport infrastructure? One positive note for Goa is the creation of the Navy's new base at Karwar, but then, the Navy too is on a major ramp up in its air capability. It remains to be seen if this new base will make Goa less important to the navy. > Btw, arent you the guy who was pushing for maglev > trains in Goa not so long > ago? Cheers. Yeah, and I also proposed that Goa spend all its revenue into creating its own airline and acquire some of the new ultra long range 777-200LRs', so that I can fly non-stop from San Francisco to Goa. If that is too extravagant, I suggest we go for smaller/shorter range aircraft such as the 737, retrofitted with in air refueling capability. We can lease the IAF's newly acquired air fuel tankers that enabled India to send a squad of its significantly shorter range Jaguars all the way to Alaska for a joint US-India air exercise last year. As has implied on goanet, we Goans is America deserve to be treated like royalty, unlike the failures who have ended up in Canada, Australia, the UK .. or even Goa. Home is where the money is, or is it the reverse, thanks to the global housing bubble in many parts of the west? Marlon
