Carriers offer more but say terror no dampener for fliers

New Delhi: First came the global financial crisis, followed by the hike in air fare. And now comes the threat of a terrorist hijack.
But officials from most of the major domestic carriers said last Wednesday’s terror attacks on Mumbai have had little impact on passenger traffic. The economic slowdown, they maintained, is the primary reason for the slide in bookings.
But the silver lining for passengers amid this gloom are the promotional offers from major domestic carriers to raise the traffic graph. While Jet Airways today announced a 50-per cent slash in basic airfares with immediate effect, the state-owned Air India also offered a limited-period promotional scheme to attract frequent-fliers during the peak winter season.
Officials from Indian Airlines, Jet Airways and Kingfisher Airlines maintained that no significant change has been seen in terms of passenger booking after last Wednesday’s siege in Mumbai.
Officials from the state-run domestic carrier said 4,150 passengers flew out of the Capital on November 26, the night militants struck Mumbai. The number fell to 4,060 passengers each on November 27 and 28, and dipped further — to 3,700 — on November 29. The curve then went northward the following day as 4,000 passengers took Indian flights out of Delhi on November 30.
“Yesterday (December 3), 4,100 passengers took our flights in Delhi,” an Air India spokesperson said. “Though there is a fear psychosis at work, people haven’t stopped flying.”
The spokesperson said the fall in passenger traffic has been since May and June, and put it on the “sharp hike in passenger fares, together with the global economic meltdown”.
05/12/08 Geeta Gupta/Expressindia.com

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Categories: Indian Aviation- In General Dec 2008