Decision to back off cheap deals sees Air Deccan fly fewer people

Deccan Aviation Ltd’s Air Deccan has seen its load factors dip from a high of 87.3% in January to 65.7% in August, the last month for which the data is available—the largest dip for any Indian airline in the period. Its market share of 20.6% in January is also down to 16.1%.
“What it is telling you is that actually those one million seats at Re1 and (free tickets) being offered are gone. And now that they have gone—the loads have got adjusted,” says a Mumbai aviation analyst who didn’t want to be identified because he is not allowed to be named by the media.
The weak load factors was felt elsewhere in the industry too, though on a much smaller scale.
Other low-fare airlines, such as SpiceJet, saw its load factor come down by nearly 5%, with IndiGo losing 1%. GoAir was the only low-fare airline to increase its share, by 2% over January.
The data comes from aviation regulator, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation.
Jet Airways saw its load factor come down from 73.4% in January to 66.5% while Kingfisher Airlines saw its load factor drop from 67.3% to 63.6%. Indian Airlines saw the biggest jump, up from 61.7% to 66.2%. Air Sahara, which is now Jet Lite, saw its load factor fall from 72.6% to 68.3%.
22/09/07 Tarun Shukla/Livemint

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Categories: Air Deccan Sep 2007