Aviation as a mode of transport remains to be a distant dream for a lot of residents, as it’s nonetheless perceived as an possibility just for the wealthy and political class. Besides socio-economic elements, lack of basic aviation infrastructure has contributed to considerations about air connectivity, making aero sport actions inaccessible to a good portion of the inhabitants. Addressing these challenges head-on, Sandeep Saxena and Ankur Agarwal, co-founders of Hapy Aviation, have launched an aviation aggregator service in India aiming to democratise aviation entry within the nation. The entrepreneur duo has a dream of making air parks in distinguished cities of India the place their clients can land and park their plane in a hanger close to their bungalows.

In the start…

Hapy Aviation chief govt officer (CEO) Sandeep and chief expertise officer (CTO) Ankur don’t belong to the aviation business. But that didn’t cease them from dreaming and developing with a enterprise thought pertaining to aviation. A biologist-turned-entrepreneur, Sandeep stated, “I know that domain knowledge is important to start a business, but more than that risk taking ability is also important. I am a learner, risk-taker and an entrepreneur by design. That is my qualification for venturing into this startup.”

“When I visited San Francisco Airport last year, I was amazed at the sheer size of the facility, number and size of airplanes that land every day. Most of the aircrafts landing there were wide and large body aircraft like Dreamliner. Besides San Francisco International Airport, there are two more Norman Y. Mineta San José International Airport, and Oakland International Airport within a few miles of distance. Besides these three, there are other seven private airports in that city. All these airports are functional having all required infrastructure in place like parking bays for aircraft, pilots, passengers, etc. That triggered a thought in my mind about whether we can bring this kind of infrastructure to India,” stated Sandeep.

He stated, “If we compare the US and India, both countries are different in many ways. Historically for the US, they had by design decided to use aviation as mode of transport. Their citizens have a constitutional right to fly. Today, the US has about 17,000 airports and 3.5 lakh aircraft whereas India has only 250 airports, most of them non-functional or just barely functional airstrips without any major flying activity. Major Indian cities are now coming with second international airports. Even large airports, like in Pune, are gearing up for expansion and increase their functionality.”

Validating thought

After returning to India, Sandeep interacted with pilots and different stakeholders on this sector. “I was surprised to know that even in India, the cost of an aircraft would be same as that of any premium car. Obviously, these would be paramotors or powered hang gliders, and there would be regulations in place, but theoretically they can fly from one point to another. We do not want to disturb anything in the civil aviation or defence airspace. But we believe that for India to grow, we need to give due attention to the general aviation sector. We can start with making new smaller and private airports where private operations can happen. When the basic idea got validated, we turned our attention to general aviation in India and the opportunities we can tap,” Sandeep stated.

General aviation

Elaborating on the final aviation market, Sandeep stated, “General aviation is anything that flies but is outside the civil aviation (airlines) and defence airspace. General aviation mainly includes experiential aircrafts like microlight aircrafts, hang gliders, hot air balloons, private and smaller aircrafts, gyrocopters, and personal helicopters. However, there is not a single platform focussing on general aviation as a service. There are several opportunities like pilot training for gliding, hot air balloons, private aviation, sales, and service of the equipment, and manufacturing that equipment. At present, almost all equipment is imported to India.”

“Aero sport activities are also gaining traction nowadays. We are planning to do lot more air shows, especially paper plane-based activity like we did in our childhood. These activities have lost relevance due to townships and skyscrapers in cities, but we need to bring them back to make children understand basic concepts of flying like gravity, thrust and airpower. Also, another thing we realised was that there is not a single company to sell tickets for aero sports in India. Several unlicenced and inexperienced players are operating the aero sport space. They do not have registration or certification or business approvals in place. Only a few have got international pilot licence and are operating in aero sports. Government has also now come up with an aero sport policy to regulate this space. We are also willing to work with some players to make aero sports safer by bringing in systemic processes and approvals in place and make it a popular sport,” Sandeep stated.

Aero sport

Hapy Aviation has began selling aero sports activities like paramotoring, paragliding, skydiving, and sizzling air balloons by means of its platform.

Sandeep stated, “We have created an online system for ground classes for pilot training. A lot of people were interested in these trainings, but there was no organised way of disseminating information related to fees, course details, etc. Also, ground classes are theoretical in nature and hence not much regulated. We have experienced pilots as teachers who conduct these classes. We are facilitating admissions for ground classes, private classes, commercial pilot licence, private pilot licence, etc. A couple of flying clubs near Baramati have been successful in attracting students, however, there are several in Chandigarh, Ahmedabad, Jamshedpur who are struggling to garner enough student strength. We will help such clubs with our services.”

Expert community

Sandeep and Ankur have additionally created a community of aviation leaders to create consciousness about basic aviation and allied actions.

Ankur stated, “Our expert group includes around 50 pilots, 10 private airport owners, along with experts from civil aviation ministry, directorate general of civil aviation (DGCA), airport directors, around 50 owners and fleet managers of airlines, airport lounge services and other consultancy firms who are helping in financial consultancy for complicated leasing models. If my team does not have answers to anything related to general aviation, then we ask these experts who help us spread knowledge. Besides our co-founding team, we have six other members who are looking after tele-calling, website, social media, and content for public interaction.”

Challenges

All these years, aviation has been pink tape and perceived to be for wealthy and political class solely. Through Hapy Aviation, Sandeep and Ankur wish to make it “common” for all to fly.

Sandeep stated, “Aviation has been an over-regulated space. It is not easy to get any approval. Being unregulated in some grey areas does not mean that anyone has the permission to conduct the activities. Also, even if one applies for approvals, the government and bureaucracy has no timeframe to complete the process. It may take one to five years for completing the approval process. In case the approval is to be granted, the team effort which is required for this is missing.

Elaborating on the approval complexities, Sandeep said, “If we want to import a single aircraft in India, we need to file an application called civil aviation requirement (CAR). To obtain an import licence, the applicant must have an import export code (IEC) number obtained from the Director general of foreign trade (DGFT) office in whose jurisdiction the company, firm, unit is situated. Every aircraft manufacturer is willing to come to India, but those companies are being asked to bring their products for testing to India. However, we do not have space to park these aircraft at airports. Airports at Mumbai and Delhi, where the inspection teams are based, are always busy while other locations are not feasible for the team of 15 to 20 members.”

Due to those challenges, the aero sports activities and tourism sector can be affected within the nation. Sandeep stated, “Most Indian citizens are enjoying aero sports outside India like in Turkey, Dubai, or Australia. If we compare skydiving in Dubai with India, it costs less in our country but there is lack of skilled, trained, and experienced professionals. We have opportunities to build such tourism hotspots near our cities. For example, near Pune we have Lavasa, Jejuri, Khed, Bhimashankar areas where we can construct runways. There are a few locations near Panvel where runways exist, but we need permissions to operate there.”

Dream parks

The duo is happy about the way forward for basic aviation. Whenever the aviation sector reforms happen, the market will flourish. “We want to build large air parks, typically large plots of 5,000 to 10,000 acres of land with an airstrip in middle and taxiway on both sides. One can have a bungalow with the hangers where the aircraft can be parked right near the house. This is possible only out of city areas and where there are no defence establishments or mountains. Amby Valley is a good example of air park,” they stated.

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