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There is no rocket science to why airlines fail in India. You don’t need McKinsey. You don’t need economists. You don’t even need a “high-level committee.”
You just need basic common sense — the rarest commodity in Delhi.
Kingfisher didn’t just die — it committed financial suicide inside a bad policy system.
Jet Airways bled out because India taxes aviation like sin goods and prices tickets like charity.
Go First collapsed like a paper plane in the first monsoon.
SpiceJet enters the ICU so often it practically has a loyalty card.
And IndiGo — the last gladiator standing — is one regulatory whim or one ATF spike away from joining the funeral procession.
India is not a land of failed airlines.
India is a land where airlines are engineered to fail.
THE SIX BULLETS THAT KEEP KILLING INDIAN AIRLINES
Let’s list the murder weapons plainly:
Aircraft Turbo Fuel- ATF taxes among the highest in the world.
Airport charges that would make even Heathrow blush.
A hyper–price-sensitive market that forces fares below cost.
Weak balance sheets bleeding from day one.
Regulatory bottlenecks that treat aviation like punishment in a Nazi Concentration Camp.
And rupee depreciation — costs in dollars, revenue in Indian sympathy.
India is a graveyard of airlines not because Indians don’t fly, but because the economics are designed for obituary writing.
THE WORLD BUILDS AIRLINES. INDIA BUILDS TAXES
Some countries build Emirates.
Some countries build Singapore Airlines.
India builds taxes, paperwork, and bankruptcy tribunals.
We should erect a memorial at every airport entrance:
“In honour of all Indian airlines that died fighting the Ministry of Finance.”
THE COUNTRIES THAT GET IT RIGHT — AND WHY WE DON’T
Look at the Gulf carriers. They don’t run airlines; they run strategic state instruments with wings. They aren’t “subsidised”—they’re structurally blessed. Their fuel isn’t taxed into oblivion the way we do it here; in fact, jet fuel in Dubai is practically cheaper than mineral water.
Their airports aren’t overcrowded shopping malls with landing strips attached; Dubai, Doha, Abu Dhabi built aviation hubs as national economic engines, not real-estate jackpots.
Try firing a crew member in India — you’ll need a year, a lawyer, and a prayer.
Try doing it in Dubai — it’s finished before the coffee cools.
They sit at the world’s geographic sweet spot, perfectly placed between Europe, Asia, and Africa.
Their governments don’t fear ordering 100 new widebody aircraft because they actually understand aviation is strategy, not gamble. Emirates isn’t an airline — it is Dubai’s foreign policy, a national soft power, on autopilot.
And then there is Singapore Airlines — the gold standard, the airline equivalent of a Swiss watch.
Singapore Airlines is owned by Temasek but run by professionals, not cousins, cronies, retired bureaucrats, or the occasional political nephew.
They don’t chase ₹999 flash sales—they pursue long-haul profitability and business travellers with actual purchasing power. They operate out of Changi, which is not an airport but a masterclass in efficiency, calm, and sanity.
Most importantly, Singapore treats aviation as nation-building, not a cow to be milked dry with ATF taxes.
Singapore Airlines is strategic capitalism. India’s aviation policy is political tokenism with a boarding pass to a suicide mission.
BACK HOME: THE REPUBLIC OF FAIR-PRICE FLIGHT SHOP
India insists it is a “deregulated market” where airlines are “free to set fares.”
This is adorable — like a toddler declaring itself the ringmaster in a circus !
India does not officially dictate ticket prices.
It unofficially dictates what airlines can get away with.
DGCA “advises.”
Ministers “summon.”
Media “outrages.”
And airfare “caps” appear magically out of thin bureaucratic air.
Then comes UDAN — Ude Desh ka Aam Naagrik — a scheme that caps fares on routes that no sane airline can serve profitably, turning noble intentions into financial landmines. UDAN looks beautiful on a PowerPoint slide, but on a balance sheet it burns through cash faster than an ATF leak.
Airlines cannot raise fares without being accused of daylight robbery.
But ATF taxes? Those can rise anytime, without warning and without apology.
India pretends to be a free market
but behaves like a controlled ration shop with runway access.
THE FINAL TRUTH
Airlines don’t crash because of pilots.
They crash because policymakers tax jet fuel like champagne and operate aviation like ration distribution in the sky.
Airlines don’t fall.
They are pushed to the brink to miserably fail & drop dead!
And until this policy ecosystem is dismantled and rebuilt, India will keep producing passengers… and State funerals for airlines.
Mohan Murti, FICA, Advocate & International Industry Arbitrator, Former Managing Director-Europe, Reliance Industries Ltd, Germany
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