Start-up airlines gain in market share

New Delhi: New entrants Kingfisher Airlines, SpiceJet and IndiGo have outsmarted established players Jet Airways and Air India by gaining market share in May. Aggressive marketing seems to have helped these start-up carriers eat into the market share of full-service carriers.
While Jet Airways’ market share in the domestic market came down to 20.5% (from 21.6% in April 2008), share of Air India fell to 14.8% in May (from 15.1%). Market share of Kingfisher Airlines and Air Deccan increased to 14.4% and 14% in May as against 14.3% and 13.6% respectively in the previous month. Jet’s low-fare airline, JetLite, has
also gained market share at 8.6% as against 8% in April.
“Jet Airways’ top-end business has been hit hard by Kingfisher. Simultaneously, budget carriers have snatched its the bottom-end customers,” Amadeus India managing director Ankur Bhatia said. He said the airline has also lost market share by going slow on its route expansion plans.
Aviation analysts attribute Air India’s poor performance to management disorientation after the merger of Indian Airlines and Air India.
16/06/08 Nirbhay Kumar/Economic Times

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Categories: Indian Aviation- In General Jun 2008