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India's airline industry is a mess. Taxesare sky-high, infrastructure is poor and profit margins are razor thin. Astring of carriers have gone out of business, and many others are struggling to stay afloat.
印度的航空業非常混亂。稅收奇高，基礎設施落后，利潤空間又非常稀薄。已經有好多航空公司破產，剩余的好多航空公司艱難生存。
Yet the big winners might beprice-conscious consumers -- and any carrier strong enough to survive the pricewars that have made India the cheapest place to fly on Earth.
然而，最大的贏家可能就是對價格保持警覺的消費者了，而那些在價格戰中生存下來的航空公司讓印度成為了世界上飛行票價最低的地方。
Consider this: In India, airlines charge anaverage $10.20 to travel 100 kilometers, according to a survey by Go Euro. Air travelers in China pay twice as much to go thesame distance, and Brazilians pay four times more. Even India's rail lines demand a higher price per kilometer.
考慮一下以下的事實：在印度，航空公司100公里的收費平均是10.2美元，這是GoEuro機構調查后得出的數據。而在中國，相同的距離可能要付兩倍的價格，在巴西可能要超過四倍。即使是印度的鐵路票價也比機票來得昂貴。
The airlines would like to charge more, but they are locked in a race to capture market share -- sometimes operating flights at a loss. Even Air India, the state-owned recipient of seemingly endless bailouts, offers fares that would be more suited to a budget airline.
當然，航空公司肯定想提高票價，但是他們為了爭奪市場份額正在進行價格戰，以至于有時候都虧損了。即使是經常接受政府救助的國有的印度航空公司所提供的票價都讓人覺這是一家廉價航空公司開出的票價。
Helped along by pricing chaos, private carrier Kingfisher Airlines has gone out of business. The government was forcedlate last year to rescue SpiceJet, the country's third largest carrier.
由于定價混亂，私人的翠鳥航空公司已經倒閉。印度政府去年不得不救助該國第三大的香料航空公司。
In total, Indian airlines have reported accumulated losses of more than $10 billion in the last seven years and thereby increased their cumulative debt burden to $16 billion, according to a recent report by industry analytics firm Center for Aviation.
總之，印度航空公司在過去7年里總共損失了100多億美元，所以他們的累積債務負擔已經達到160億美元，這是行業分析公司航空中心最近的一份報告所得出的。
Yet as with many sectors in India, optimismis creeping in around the edges. Funds from foreign investors have provided aboost, and analysts hope that newly-elected Prime Minister Narendra Modi will push through meaningful reforms.
然而，和印度的很多行業一樣，印度航空業開始變得樂觀起來。外國投資者的資金提振了印度航空業，而分析家們也希望新當選的莫迪能通過有意義的改革。
The potential for rapid growth is hard toignore. India's cities are rapidly growing, and middle-class consumers have money to spend on luxuries like air travel.
顯然快速增長的潛力還是不容忽視的。印度城市在快速發展，中產階級有能力進行奢侈品消費，比如坐飛機。
Anurag Bhatia, Executive Director of Bird Group, a provider of aviation services to India's biggest airports, believe sairlines have a long way to go before tapping the true potential of the market.
印度最大機場的航空服務供應商BirdGroup的行政董事AnuragBhatia認為在航空市場的潛力得到真正開發之前航空公司還有很長的路要走。
"There are 25 to 30 million people that use airplanes in India, whereas there are nearly 300 million that canactually afford to travel but don't because of unavailability of flights or the lack of airports," he said.
“印度有2500-3000萬人坐飛機，而有3億人有能力去旅游，但由于航班和機場的缺乏，導致人們無法出行，”他說。
