Carriers fly high as traffic surges

New Delhi: Indian air carriers are reporting their busiest ever quarter with passenger traffic for the three months ending December 31 expected to surpass the October-December 2007 levels, indicating a revival in the industry. Airline executives say that while flights to metro cities saw a surge in traffic, leisure travel came as an added bonus.
This marks a strong comeback for the industry as air traffic had slumped since early 2008 due to slowdown and had deteriorated further due to the Mumbai terror attacks in November last year.
As per the data available with Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), in November, an estimated 40 lakh passengers travelled compared to 30.48 lakh in the same month last year. In October 2009 too 40 lakh passengers had travelled on airlines compared to 32 lakh passenger in the year ago period. These figures reveal that passenger traffic in October-November’09 has already surpassed the 2007 levels when 75.2 lakh people travelled.
This has lifted the overall passenger traffic for the year, which has been lagging since 2008. During January-November 2009, 400 lakh passengers travelled an increase of 5.45 % over same period in 2008. Airline companies say the pickup in air traffic over the last two months is due to increase in both business and leisure travel and would allow them to improve their financial performance as fuel cost has not swung too sharply during the last one quarter.
29/12/09 Meenakshi Verma Ambwani/Economic Times

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Categories: Indian Aviation- In General Dec 2009