No spike in airlines' load factor even after 50% fare cut

While most airlines have cut their fares by half only Jet Airways has seen a spike in passenger load factors. Load factors for Kingfisher and Spicejet remain almost at the previous levels suggesting the industry hasn't seen a pick-up in demand yet.
According to sources, Kingfisher, for instance, has not really seen the load factors going up in spite of the three-day fare cut that they have announced following Jet Airways. Jet had seen load factors jumping to almost 25,000 bookings a day which on a normal day would give them about 21,000––so Jet clearly has seen a spike in demand but for the others things have remained almost the same. That suggests that the overall demand has not picked-up.
For the month of August, the total number of domestic passengers that were carried was 36.3 lakh versus July’s 35.97 lakh. So, there has been a small jump as far as August is concerned. But industry expert and sources indicate that this figure will not grow to a significant level in September. Thus, load factors are not going up for most of the airlines and clearly demand is not picking up.
19/09/09 CNBC-TV18

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Categories: Indian Aviation- In General Sep 2009, Jet Airways Sep 2009, Kingfisher Sep 2009