Santa gets busy for airlines, travel

New Delhi: The bells are jingling for the country’s airlines this Christmas. After a year that saw the industry suffer in an economic downturn, the New Year holiday season is bringing back some colour.
Flights are well-booked and travel destinations are being discovered on the map to show that a slump in travel may be somewhat offset by travellers who had spent the previous Christmas week in doubt about the economy.
More and more people are opting for outstations vacations rather than a “quiet evening” with family and friends which was the refrain last year.
“We are looking to fly between 25,000 to 28,000 passengers every day between December 24 to January 16. Our flights to Jaipur and Udaipur, Goa, Trivandrum, Bhubaneshwar are fully booked and these are besides the metro destinations which are also reporting good loads,” a spokesperson for Air India said.
To meet the rush Air India will operate additional flights to Goa, Port Blair and Aizwal. Nineteen additional flights will be operated from Chennai to Port Blair in the Andamans, which is a seaside destination increasingly matching old favourite Goa for its sands.
“India was never into recession like the rest of the world in the past. It has very effectively moved out of it which has a straight relation with travel and tourism industry,” Raji Rai, president of Travel Agents Association of India said.
For the low-cost carriers, which were already doing good business during the economic slow down, the holiday season promises them with load factors — the average occupancy of passengers per flight — and better bottomlines.
18/12/09 Samiran Saha/Hindustan Times

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Categories: Indian Aviation- In General Dec 2009