More people flying abroad even as local travel declines

Bangalore: Shrinking number of air passengers on the domestic sector has pushed up the share of international sector in India's total air passenger traffic.
Latest statistics put out by the Airports Authority of India (AAI), shows the domestic sector's share declined to 71% last fiscal from 74% in financial year 2008 even as the international sector's share moved up to 29% from 26%.
The drop was on account of an 11% drop in air passengers on the domestic sector, even as passengers flying into and out of the country grew 6%.
The Airport Authority's year-to-datedata for the current fiscal, brought out in May, show a fall of 10% in domestic traffic as international traffic went up 4% during the same period.
The share of international traffic at Delhi and Hyderabad airports during year to date jumped to 31% and 27% from 28% and 17%, respectively as compared with the year ago period.
A senior executive at the Hyderabad airport said international traffic was growing because airlines were launching new flights and adding more frequencies even as domestic airlines were cutting back capacity.
15/08/09 Praveena Sharma/Daily News & Analysis

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Categories: Foreign Aug 2009, Indian Aviation- In General Aug 2009