Sustainability and growth of Charter operators An Industry Analysis in Indian Perspective

Abstract

With the advent of National Civil aviation Policy (NCAP), 2016, the government has decided to take flying to most of the population of India. The Regional Connectivity Scheme, or UDAN, is newlinean important component of the NCAP. As on 30th November 2022, 1.1 crore individuals have benefited from the regional connectivity scheme. The civil aviation of India is one the most fastest growing markets in the world with status of being the 7th largest aviation market in the world. The aviation is divided into 2 parts, scheduled and Charter operators (non-scheduled). The schedule operators have a pre-decided schedule or timetable, but Charter operators (non-scheduled) (NSOPs) include the charters and private planes and do not have a set timetable. The NSOPs are the lifelines of the Indian aviation as they contribute to the economic development of the country. The NSOPs are vital in offshore operations, quick connectivity to unreachable places and hence increasing and supporting foreign direct investments. They also help in medical emergencies and humanitarian purposes. They improve the economy of the county by supporting regional and religious tourism. For the above reasons, it is important that we explore the mentioned industry from the lens of customers and serving NSOPs as little research is done in this field. The current focusses on studying the preference of customers, their demography and what initiative if taken would encourage the use of charter operators. The author tried to understand if the initiatives taken by charter operators and factors which customers considered while selecting the charters are having relationship with their age, purpose of trip, profession, and educational qualification. We found that the hypothesis was partially accepted in most cases and hence this result can be used to personalize the experience for customers. The author has come up with new factors specific to this industry which can be used for future studies. newline