One of the worst Pandemic-hit Aviation Sector is set to recover in 2021 but these Indian Startups are bringing you Flying Taxis and more in the Indian aviation industry which looks promising to become the world’s largest by 2030.
Highlights
- The aviation industry of India is witnessing a high-growth trajectory and is aiming to become the largest industry in the world by 2030 as per the latest IBEF report.
- Being the ninth-largest civil aviation market in the world, with market size of around $16 billion, this is one sector, which has presented massive growth opportunities. Due to the widespread mergers and acquisitions in 2018-2019, this sector is expanding to take off a big way.
- The aviation sector has laid a fertile ground for Indian startups, which are making an effort to mark their entry into the industry through innovation.
- Eflight and ePlane Company are two startups in the country, which have combined artificial intelligence, the Internet of things (IoT), blockchain, and augmented reality in their model to offer customized yet affordable experience to the user.
Today, the airline industry has changed the game in the travelling sector. No longer people have to invest their time in commuting long distances or suffering in an unhealthy environment. With this sophisticated technology of flying, airlines have revolutionised the way we travel and has bought the world closer.
As much as 3.6 billion passengers of the world are travelling through each year and not to miss the delivering of one-third of the world’s trade. These growing numbers of passengers and technological innovations have changed the face and look of the industry for good.
Noting that India has become the third-largest domestic aviation market in the world and is expected to overtake the UK business. It will then become the third largest air passenger market by 2024, as per International Air Transport Association.
Watch: The Opportunities and Challenges of Indian Aviation
Taking off
Since total air passenger traffic of the country stood at 341.05 million in FY20, it became more evident to make a dent in this industry with newer and better ideas of operation. Not only in consumer travel but also in related areas, there is a scope of improvement. Such as Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in domestic airlines, the architecture of modern airports, the budgeted cost for low-cost carriers and in the IT sector. All these numbers have only attracted brilliant minds to brainstorm for Indian startups to enter the aviation space and tweak the existing pain points and bring the change.
Eflight: for a perfect flight path
Making flying smoother, the company ideally wants to provide business in private plane flight planning. This Bengaluru-based startup aims at creating an inclusive platform that can take care of the basic needs of private flying. Needs such as managing agents, getting military clearance, permission to land and fly and plan flying routes.
Founder and chief operating officer of Eflight, Prem Kumar was working at Hindustan Aeronautical Limited airport (HAL) as an air traffic controller. Observing his daily work, he realized that there is a massive need of managing things together. The pilot of private jets alone has to cater information regarding the time, condition, and route for flying, which was tedious and a handful of work.
This is when he came up with the idea of Eflight, a platform that can take care of all these. Currently, the startup serves more than 40 business aviation clients in India and handles 150 flights a day. Their business model has also caught the attention of global aerospace and defence company, Airbus. They have selected Eflight for its accelerator programme.
The ePlane Company: bringing you flying taxis
This Chennai-based startup focuses on providing aerial mobility for urban travel purposes. They are building electric planes to improve the issue of commutation in megacities. The ePlane Company was founded in 2015 by Satya Chakravarthy and Pranjal Mehta, the team of two has created electric planes, which claims 10 times faster commute within cities at a similar price as of the taxi or cabs. This model of theirs can also be used for moving cargo in remote and rural areas.
With the idea of a flying taxi, they started their company as a small-scale prototype by bootstrapping. However, this year they raised a $1 million fund led by VC Speciale Invest and has participation from IIM Ahmedabad’s CIIE.CO, FirstCheque, JavaCapital, and Sharechat co-founder Farid Ahsan. The company will be using this capital to augment its technology and building infrastructure. Expanding their business, they will be hiring experts from engineering backgrounds to develop intellectual property.
