Aviation is a difficult Business says Gustavo de Arístegui

Gustavo de Arístegui is a Spanish politician, diplomat and an international analyst. He is the former ambassador of Spain in India. The Ambassador of Spain in India, Gustavo de Arístegui in an interaction with Mr. Jayant Baranwal says that civil aviation is very important because it is going to boost the relation between the two countries. He also reflects on the civil aviation conference which he attended in New Delhi.

Gustavo de Arístegui was delighted that the conference was surprisingly good. Gustavo shared some interesting details about the booming market that aviation is going to be in India. "You see that there are less than 350 jets operating in the country which is so huge. You see crowded airports and they say less than one per cent of Indians are flying, just imagine what is going to happen when two per cent of Indians are flying or five per cent of Indians are flying or 10 per cent of Indians flying. It is going to be a crowded sky. The predictions that some of them are making that there would 1700 or 1800 jets in the next 10 – 20 years, I believe it would be more", Gustavo detailed. He considers civil aviation to be the most successful market to emerge in the following years in India.

Speaking about Airbus Spain, Gustavo highlighted, "We are right now, one of the biggest, if not the biggest market in the world. Airbus has the largest market share of any other market in the world. It is a remarkable achievement". Gustavo expects India can make the same kind of achievement, if we concentrate on developing the civil aviation industry.

Gustavo de Arístegui acknowledges that aviation is a difficult business and that the volatility of the markets and the volatility of the price of fuel and oil is affecting the profitability and the stability of this business. Reflecting on the matter Gustavo said, "It is obvious. But in this environment, it is very amazing to see such brilliant executives as most Indian airlines have. In many aspects they have created trends... for example in negotiation. Indigo is not just about buying planes at a reasonable price, negotiating well with the manufacturers of aircraft or manufacturers of engines. It is about financial engineering, it is about their management, it is about their structure cost, it is about their personal management, their human resources and it is really quite amazing". Gustavo de Arístegui also mentioned that he has flown in all Indian carriers and absolutely liked all of them.

As a final statement about the Delhi conference on civil aviation, Gustavo de Arístegui said that he is very happy with his conversations with the Indian Ministry of Civil Aviation. He is certain that in his talks with Indian officials of the ministry of external affairs and so many other ministries he has seen that in the last three and half years, there has been a greater proximity of both countries in so many aspects and deeper ones.