The Indian civil aviation sector that showed impressive profits in the pre-liberalisation era has been adversely affected since the onset of the government's open-sky policy in the late 1980s. Attempts to modernise and streamline the airlines' functioning remain stymied due to technological obsolescence, successive changes in government in the mid-1990s; lack of a coherent policy on private participation as well as recalcitrance on the part of politically affiliated unions of pilots and controllers. However, as borne out by several expert recommendations, a reverse in the fortunes of India's beleaguered airlines can only occur with the dawn of professional management.
