Air India domestic mkt share up 2.4%

Mumbai: Air India's share of the local market has risen sharply as increased travel and higher capacity bettered the national carrier's prospects, which had dipped after a week-long strike by its pilots in September.
The national carrier said its share has gone up to 19% in November, compared to 16.6% in August. "This has mainly been driven by higher seat load factor," said an Air India spokesperson.
The state-owned carrier's seat load factor - the percentage of seats occupied in an aircraft - has gone up 90% from a poor 59% in August, the spokesperson added.
"All flights connecting metro cities are going full. The load factor has touched above 90% in some sectors and our market share has gone up in the last three months. All these are good and positive indications for the airline after quite some time," said the spokesperson.
Air India, which operates around 400 flights daily, is also the official Indian carrier for the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi next year. The airline is also improving its capacity. The carrier had ordered 111 aircraft (68 from Boeing and 43 from Airbus) in 2005, for Rs 45,000 crore. The airline has so far received deliveries of 24 Boeing and 21 Airbus. Air India, currently has a total fleet of 150 aircraft.
26/12/09 Mithun Roy/Economic Times

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Categories: Air India Domestic Dec 2009, NACIL Dec 2009