Not just cricket

opinion
0
SHARE:

Much of the world cannot understand the attraction of cricket. But in the Indian subcontinent it is by far the most popular sport. Yesterday worked stop in Pakistan and India as the two countries competed against each other in one semi-final of the World Cricket Cup. It was a busy day at Chandigarh Airport the closest airport to the match.

Much of the world cannot understand the attraction of cricket. But in the Indian subcontinent it is by far the most popular sport. Yesterday worked stop in Pakistan and India as the two countries competed against each other in one semi-final of the World Cricket Cup. It was a busy day at Chandigarh Airport the closest airport to the match.

The airport normally sees less than six flights a day. Yesterday it handled 130 flights including the prime ministers of both India and Pakistan. The airport says this number of flights is a world record for an airport with a bay of 108 metres (355 feet) and it is even more significant when you realise that there are only 136 private jets registered in the country.

However, whilst it demonstrates the strong, growing demand for business jets in India, it also shows how infrastructure needs to improve. Only two aircraft – the ones used by the prime ministers – were able to park at the airport. The others had 15 minutes to land, disembark passengers and then take off for other airports.

It is hard to see how infrastructure could have kept up. Data from Firestone Management Group, a specialist consultancy concentrating on Asia, says that in the last 36 months, some 43 jets have been added to the registry. No other market has grown 46% since 2009.

India won by 29 runs so the business jet rush will be repeated again for the final.

Subscribe to our free newsletter

For more opinions from Corporate Jet Investor, subscribe to our One Minute Week newsletter.

Subscribe here

SHARE: