The Indian American

10 to 15 years. As millions of newly wealthy Indians take to the skies for the first time each year, the country is scrambling to trans- form colonial-era airstrips into plush airports, and suddenly stretched air- lines are investing in new planes and recruiting foreign pilots. "In the 70 years since independence, just 400 planes were serving us," said Prime Minister Narendra Modi as he unveiled an airport cut into the Himalayan mountains at Pakyong, in Sikkim state, in September - his second such opening that month. "In the past year alone, airline companies have ordered 1,000 new airplanes." A relative blip at the turn of the mil- lennium, India's aviation market has become a juggernaut. In October, its airlines marked 48 consecutive months of double-digit growth in traffic, according to the International Air Transport Association (IATA). By 2024, IATA estimates, India will rank behind only China and the United States in terms of air traffic to, from and within the country. "Twenty years ago, India's market was so minuscule, it barely even figured in," said Dinesh Keskar, Boeing's senior vice president of sales for Asia-Pacific and India for commercial planes. "In the near future, we think one in 20 planes will be sold to India." The demand for airports is driven, in part, by new affluence in second- and third-tier cities such as Kishangarh. In the 1990s, the small, family-run marble companies here turned into multinational corporations, generating wealth that lifted the whole population. Even as it retains its sleepy, small-town vibe, the city draws billionaires' wives, cricket champions and television stars looking to decorate homes, temples and malls - and who now arrive for their marble-shopping visits on chartered private planes or helicopters rather than by car or train. Traders anticipate that the new com- mercial air connection to Delhi will bring even more customers wanting marble tiles for walls and floors. A sin- gle 78-passenger flight should bring an additional $400,000 a day in revenue, according to Suresh Tak, president of Kishangarh's Marble Association. Only two weeks after the first com- mercial flight began, the novelty of the airport was already wearing off for resi- dents and the possibilities sinking in. "What we really need now is a flight to Mumbai," said one of Devi Singh's soldier friends, sipping tea. "No, we want Kishangarh to Jaipur in 15 minutes," said another. Such surging demand should in theo- ry lead to profits for India's airlines. In practice, though, the companies are struggling to cash in because of a com- bination of surging fuel prices, a weak rupee and fierce competition that keeps ticket prices low. "All this talk of India as the third- largest aviation market may not hap- pen, because the infrastructure may not be able to come up," said aviation jour- nalist Neelam Matthews. In July, share prices of InterGlobe Aviation, the parent company of India's biggest airline, IndiGo, plunged 10 per- cent when it announced quarterly results showing a 97 percent dip in net 33 THE INDIAN AMERICAN OCTOBER-DECEMBER 2018