The aviation industry is expected to immensely benefit from technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, big data and blockchain. For instance, the aviation giant Airbus is constantly working on technologies such as Artificial Intelligence(AI), big data and blockchain to bring out quick solutions. According to Dr Dwarkanath, President, Airbus India, said that over the next 20 years, air traffic will increase by 4.5 per cent a year and the centre of gravity for this growth will be the Asia Pacific region particularly India. According to Dwarkanath the domestic air traffic in India had grown at around 27 per cent over the last three years. “Make in India' is at the heart of Airbus India strategy and the company was in the process of setting up its first training centre in Asia in Delhi,” remarked Dwarkanath.
On the same lines Vinay Dube, CEO of Jet Airways, pointed out that Indian aviation industry, has great growth opportunities and he mentioned that transportation can drive the economy and building airports will play a significant role in this growth story. “We need to get better at the use of data and analytics in aviation. There is no dearth of data but a scarcity of analytics capabilities. Over time Indian aviation industry will be up for consolidation. We have seen consolidation in Germany, China. etc. It will be healthy because aviation is a business of scale. Business traffic and high end leisure traffic is going to grow tremendously. We are going to have too many airports and too little airport capacity. Airports in metros already have too little capacity such as in Delhi and Mumbai. Let’s not try to reinvent the wheel, but adopt from countries, with a developed aviation sector, to manage the increased demand in this sector,” pointed out Dube. He further added that airports have the potential to drive the economy of a city or a state or a country.
These aviation experts were speaking on the sidelines of an international conference on Future of Aviation and Aerospace 2018, in Bengaluru. The event was organised by the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIMB), in collaboration with Toulouse Business School (TBS), France and was targeted at senior aviation and aerospace management professionals.
Interestingly, given the immense opportunity that the aviation sector offers in India, IIMB along with TBS is providing a General Management Programme for Aerospace and Aviation Executives (GMAE) for professionals to combine technical skills with managerial acumen to take up leadership roles in this sector.
On the sidelines of the event there was a special panel discussion on ‘Startups: Their Role and contribution to Aerospace and Aviation Industry’ which focused on the fact that the big aviation companies were mentoring startups by giving them real time projects. It was also highlighted that starts up were finding it challenging to identify the right team and stakeholders to take the technology forward, turnaround time and budgets for the technologies in the aviation sector.