Short-haul travellers back in train

New Delhi: The euphoria over travelling low-cost airlines seems to be over. Indian consumers have started reverting to good old railways for short-haul distances.
While railways have seen a 24% rise in AC coach traffic, air traffic growth has come down to 9.01% from 25% between January 2007 and May 2008. The reason is that Indian Railways has been able to absorb fuel price hike due to more favourable spending ratio. Airlines spend 12 times more on energy bills to transport a single passenger as against railways.
The growth has mainly been in short-distance routes such as Mumbai-Pune, Delhi-Jaipur, Delhi-Chandigarh, etc. The reason is that air ticket prices have almost doubled on these routes, but rail fare has been declining.
Railways are also becoming an option for travellers as airlines are cutting down frequency on short-haul routes. Low-cost carrier SpiceJet has decided to cut its flights to 97 next week from current 117. Other carriers Jet Airways, Kingfisher and JetLite have said they would cut flights by up to 15%.
Even outstation students, who have been till recently using low-cost airlines, have reverted to trains. Professionals who have to make frequent business visits in short-distance sectors are also taking the rail route.
30/06/08 Rajat Guha & Gunjan Pradhan Sinha/Economic Times

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Categories: Indian Aviation- In General Jun 2008, Low Cost General Jun 2008