Domestic air passenger traffic likely to plunge further

Mumbai: Domestic air passenger traffic is likely to continue its negative trend in March despite aggressive fare cuts by airlines since January, according to initial estimates provided by travel agents.
Airlines flew 7% fewer passengers during February compared with the year ago period, data released by the Director General of Civil Aviation said. In January, the number of domestic air passengers fell to 3.32 million, compared to 3.33 million last year, the DGCA data said.
The Director General of Civil Aviation is scheduled to come out with its passenger figures for March, by the end of this month. Amadeus India managing director Ankur Bhatia said: "Domestic airlines cut fares by almost half in the January-February period, but the number of passengers keeps declining even now. There is no recovery in passengers load." Amadeus is a global technology and distribution partner to the travel and tourism industry.
Interestingly, when passenger traffic data is falling, online bookings in Asia Pacific have increased by 17%. In India, almost 4.5 million bookings, or 11% of all air bookings, were made through online, a 56% increase from the previous year.
08/04/09 Mithun Roy/Economic Times

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Categories: Indian Aviation- In General Apr 2009