Air traffic slumps to new low

It's confirmed-higher airfares are driving down air travel growth.Air traffic in April, which is considered a good month for airlines, grew by just 8.65% to 38.92 lakh passengers from 35.92 lakh passengers during the same month last year. This is much below the 10-12% air traffic growth in the lean quarter (January, February and March) of this calendar year.
Analysts say slowdown in demand was largely due to higher fares. "Last couple months, demand has been growing at 10-12%, but 8.65% is very low, considering that April is a good month for airlines. It means that at current prices, consumers are not travelling as much as they used to before. It will take some time before they recalibrate and return back to air travel," said an analyst with a domestic broking house.
Passenger growth of airlines has been consistently tumbling since December. It fell from 27% in November to 13.3% in December, 12.2% in January and 11.3% in February.
For the first time in the last 3-4 years, it has now dropped to single digits.
15/05/08 Praveena Sharma/ DNA MONEY/Sify

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Categories: Indian Aviation- In General May 2008