"Ihave neverseensucha dramaticchange in the marketcharacterinsucha short spanof time," analystKapilKaul, who runs the Center for Asia PacificAviation, said.
India's airlines struggle to make a profit, mostly because of high costs of imported jet fuel, said KapilKaul, an analyst at the India office of Sydney-based CAPA-Centre for Aviation.
According to KapilKaul, chief executive, Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation India, the number of airline passengers is expected to grow nearly four-fold from 123 million to 450 million by 2020.
"AirAsia will initially start on a low-scale but once they scale up their operations, I would expect them to be a formidable competitor in India, " said KapilKaul, the South Asia chief executive at aviation consultancy CAPA-Centre for Aviation.