Financial health of airline sector is the real cause for concern, not overblown safety issues

Source: The post is based on the article “Financial health of airline sector is the real cause for concern, not overblown safety issues” published in the Indian Express on 1^st August 2022.

Syllabus: GS 3 – Infrastructure: Energy, Ports, Roads, Airports, Railways etc.

Relevance: To understand aviation safety in India.

News: The recent incidents of airlines developing technical glitches have received widespread public scrutiny, raising concerns about the safety of Indian carriers. But this is not the real problem in aviation safety.

What is the performance of Indian aircrafts on safety parameters?

As per International Air Traffic Association (IATA) records, there was only one accident in every 9.9 lakh flights in 2021 as opposed to one in every 6.3 lakh flight in 2020, globally.

India’s air safety indicators are significantly ahead of the global average. In 2019, there were just 0.82 accidents per million flights as compared to the global average of 3.02.

The improvement in India’s performance can be noted in the fact that accidents per million flights were 2.8 in 2014.

Why does the recent issues are not significant for aviation safety?

Quality of human resources: This includes the critical facets of training pilots, ground crew and engineers helped in improving India’s progress.

Minimum Equipment List (MEL): The incidents of airlines’ Minimum Equipment List (MEL) have been repeatedly highlighted for the faltering safety standards. However, simply having a MEL by an airline does not translate into a compromise of safety margins.

The categories of MELs are defined by the manufacturer and duly approved by the regulator — the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).

Note: Oversight over Indian carriers is not just maintained by the DGCA but also by the IATA and EASA.

The incidents of windshield fissures or crack: An aircraft windshield comprises multiple layers and houses a heating system. The movement of aircraft can cause certain stresses which might lead to cracks in the windshield. This is a fairly common occurrence that can take place due to adverse weather conditions.

Similarly, bird hits can also occur at any time as this is not a controllable factor.

What are the challenges faced while ensuring aviation safety?

a) Robustness of aircraft maintenance:  To ensure proper maintenance an aircraft must have the requisite bandwidth and repository of spare parts. In the backdrop of the Ukraine-Russia war, titanium is in short supply.

Note: 60% of Titanium comes from Russia. It is a a major component of aircraft spares and engines.

b) Multiple low-cost airline operators: These airlines attract a greater portion of the market share, and keep ticket prices low enough to attract customers while managing operations as well as staff salaries. This poses a grave challenge to the sustenance of airlines.

c) Financial health of the sector: Apart from spares shortage, the sector is facing shipping disruptions and high fuel prices. A huge monotony of systems in every airline makes flights expensive.

Multiple taxes further push up costs even while competition between airlines creates immense pressure on the balance sheets. All this creates a situation of high operating costs for the entire aviation industry.

What should be done to improve India’s aviation sector?

The regulator must seriously consider the issues regarding the shortage of spare parts owing to delayed payments to vendors. The DGCA should also take steps to improve the financial health of airlines.