More passengers fly this Christmas

New Delhi: Yuletide spirit has beaten the downturn in air travel. All three full service carriers--Air India (domestic), Jet and Kingfisher--have witnessed a sudden spurt in domestic traffic that is higher than past few months and two Christmas. Clearly, the sight of 2008 slipping out has made people let loose their suppressed desire to travel in the hope of a better and brighter 2009.
AI (domestic), the erstwhile Indian Airlines, for instance had been witnessing much lower average passenger loads in this November and December when compared to last two years. And this figure has suddenly jumped in this year-end festive season.
``In November 2006 and 2007, our average daily passenger traffic was 24,880 and 25,530, which dropped to just 20,960 this time. The December 2006 and 2007 figure of 27,040 and 25,270 has dropped to 22,000 this month. But till Wednesday evening, 26,400 passengers were booked to fly with us on Christmas eve. This figure is higher than the ones reported in past two festive seasons,'' said an airline spokesperson. The entire festive week bookings are looking better than same period in the past two years.
Jet and Kingfisher did not give any figures but admitted higher passenger flow this time compared to 2006 and 2007. ``The domestic load is much better than last year and international traffic is very strong this holiday season. Transfer of passengers between Jet and JetLite has gone up three-fold after the recent codeshare, which means more people are travelling both airlines on two different segments,'' said a senior Jet official.
25/12/08 Saurabh Sinha/Times of India

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Categories: Indian Aviation- In General Dec 2008