NEW KID ON THE BLOCK

LET’S SAY YOU plan to fly from New Delhi to Mumbai for a holiday before December. Currently, you can choose among all six pan-India carriers that fly that route, with all of their cheapest tickets at around ₹2,500. The closeness of the price range isn’t a surprise considering the cut-throat competition in the aviation industry, especially after airlines were grounded for months due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

By this time next year, there will hopefully be two more options—Akasa Air and Jet Airways 2.0. And if things go as per plan, Air India could go to a private entity, which would be raring to go. After the lull of the past 18-odd months, suddenly there’s action happening in the sector. The most astute investor of current times, Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, too, has taken the plunge, betting on one fact—the world’s second-most populous country is hugely under-penetrated in air travel. Munch this—just about 8 per cent of India’s population fly.

But why has Jhunjhunwala, who is often referred to as India’s Warren Buffett, ventured into a sector that has more case studies of failure than success? The catastrophic