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A 19 % hike in the price of Aviation Turbine Fuel (ATF) announced by India’s oil companies at the end of May 2008 jolted the Indian airline industry. With this hike, ATF prices had roughly doubled in a year, and tripled in four years. A concerned Civil Aviation Minister, Praful Patel, rushed to the Finance Minister seeking his support to prevent the industry from turning sick – losses of the airlines in 2007-08 were of the order of Rs. 40 billion and were predicted by some analysts to reach twice that level in 2008-09. Yet, just three years earlier, the ind ustry was seen as a sunshine industry that would march in step with India’s economic growth. While individual airlines debated their survival strategies, observers wondered how things could have gone wrong so fast. History of the Indian Airline Industry At the time of India’s independence from the British in 1947, several small airlines operated in the country. Soon, however, in 1953, the government of India decided to “guide the orderly growth and evolution ” of the industry by creating two state-owned national carriers – Air India (for international travel) and Indian Airlines (for domestic travel). Existing carriers (many of which were making losses) were folded into these airlines. In a country of India’s size and diverse topological features, air travel was expected to be an important mode of travel